Mending the Heart
by Soap Box Opera
Summary: Rapunzel has lived 200 years more than the human lifespan and no matter how badly she wants to die, the flower won't let her. So she continues to live alone on earth under depression until Jack magically appears into her life and decides to mend and guard her broken heart. [The Big Four] [Present Day]
1. A Cup of Tea and Wine

Mending the Heart

Chapter One: A Cup of Tea and Wine

Rapunzel looked out the small oval window. She had always chosen to sit by the window in airplanes – not because she can look outside but instead, she does so to avoid conversation. Lately however, she hasn't had to worry too much over chats because the people in the 21st century were too absorbed in their own space to strike up a chat.

Through the closed window, there is an open field of concrete and other planes connected to the airport. Below the airplane, men in bright orange coats throw the luggage into a conveyor belt that sloped into the back of the plane. Inside the plane, families and single passengers shuffled down the plane aisle to get into their seats. Some chirped in excitement while some remained silent with yellow crust still in their eyes. A soft buzz fills the air as the engine softly hums into life and oxygen spills into the cabin.

Despite aviation being available to the public for nearly 100 years, Rapunzel is still amazed by the advancement of technology. She had been part of the crowd that watched the Wright brothers raise their wooden plane off the ground and now, planes have adapted to become large metal machines that have the capacity to carry 500 people plus additional luggage. The seats were wrapped in velvet and cloth; it had televisions attached to the back while the plane catered food and restrooms with attendants. 230 years ago, no one would have conceived this idea.

If only her family had been here to see – "Hey." She can feel her seat shift as someone's weight rests on the seat beside hers. She turns and forces a smile.

"Hello." She says to the fairly handsome man. He's a young lad – somewhere just past his 30's with an attractive smile and dark blue eyes. His hair is very short and a pale toned yellow while his scruff is a mismatched darker brown.

"I'm Charlie." From his mouth, a light European accent draws out as he offers a hand. Rapunzel raises a curious eyebrow; it had been a long time since a man had been this forward.

"I'm Rapunzel." A genuine smile comes across her face as she takes his hand into hers. Though it was far from normal in 21st century mannerism, she found it comforting as it reminds her of the past's mannerism – which she prefers over now.

"Rapunzel?" He asks as if she had made a mistake on her own name – or that it had been a joke but she is not offended at all. Many of the people she had met always had the same reaction.

"Yup, Rapunzel." There's a ring in her tone when she answers him.

"No bloody way. I demand to see some kind of ID."

"Well you'll be surprised then." She pulls out her passport and freely offers it to him. Though this action would be considered dangerous, Rapunzel had no worries. She had made enough underground connections to whip up any kind of document encase he had stolen it – which she doubts.

He examined it carefully and handed the small booklet back. "Don't go stalking me now." The atmosphere had now opened into lighthearted banter and she takes her American passport back; her Canadian passport had been stuffed deep within her purse.

"Ohh… Not too sure." His hand crawls to his chin as he scratched the light brown stubble while his eyes wandered to the top of the ceiling but soon he joins Rapunzel's laughter. "But really, have no worries. I can't remember a bloody phone number and the great New York City is a large state with over flooded people. I'm sure we won't pass each other… unless fate brings us close." He winks, causing Rapunzel to slur into laughter again. "But really. When my family and I get to New York, we're taking another connecting flight to LA." He notions to the seats on his left, across the aisle. "You know, for a Rapunzel… I imagined her more as a blonde." A finger points at her long brown hair that is held high by a single band.

"Yes. I'm actually thinking of dying it blonde." She combs her long hair over her shoulder. As each generation goes, she often shifts between blond and her natural brunette colour to help her hide her appearance.

"Yeah, that'd be good then. You'd look exactly like the Disney Rapunzel… My wife and daughter love watching it, they even got it on Blu-Ray." He leans back on his seat so Rapunzel can see the woman on the other side of the aisle. However his wife's face couldn't be seen because her back is turned to them as she attends a child but eventually Charlie calls out to her.

"Hey Claire," He says, waiting for the attendant to pass by before he pats his wife shoulder. His wife turns around and her bright blue eyes sparkle behind her curly blonde hair. "Look who I found. This girl's name is Rapunzel." Claire's mouth opens in surprise before she smiles with a quick giggle.

"No way, I don't believe it." Claire responds and her accent is a little different from Charlie's European one, instead, Rapunzel is certain she's Australian.

"No, it's true. My name is Rapunzel."

"Oh wow, my daughter Lizzie and I loved Tangled. I'm sure you've seen it?" She asks.

"Surprisingly. No, I haven't." But Rapunzel has a fair idea of where the movie was headed. After all, she had been the one to tell her story to the actual man himself.

"Oh you have to watch it. It's absolutely amazing. I'm sure Lizzie would love to talk to you but she's sleeping and when kids fall asleep on a flight…" Rapunzel nods, knowing completely what if felt like to take a rest while a child is asleep. After all, she had been a mother once…

"It's fine, I get it." Rapunzel says, now sitting properly as the intercom scratched and a voice called out so the passengers have their attention. They begin to go through the instructions in English while the video on screen sync with their explanation. Standing in both aisles, a row of attendants extend their arms and point to exits, emergency kits, signals and pamphlets before shuffling back to their own station to buckle up.

Rapunzel can hear the engine roar into life as it backs out of its area and drives to the long runway. Once it's at the end of the runway, the engine's roar louder and the plane picks up speed. In a few seconds, it is hovering over the concrete before comfortably into the air before the wheels up curl into the plane. Rapunzel can feel the weight shift in her stomach and from the window, she can see the city buildings turn into grey specks. As they reach each mile upwards, it is eventually covered by cloud and the world seems to disappear under them.

Her ears clog uncomfortably and she remembers a remedy that was once taught to her – she pinched her nose and blew hard so her ears popped clean. She turns her head slightly to glance at Charlie who's rubbing his wife's shoulder. A little boy – Rapunzel assumes him to be their son, is on his knees as he continues to look out the window and in between Claire and her son is a sleeping Lizzie. "Flights make her nervous?" Rapunzel asks, looking at Charlie.

"Yeah… it's a really long story." Charlie tries to tell her with a grin. "Really bad turbulence between Sydney and LA." His cliché words trigger a thought in Rapunzel… really long story… that's what she's been telling people lately whenever they got too curious over her life. Her long life made it hard to track which story she would choose to stick to and thus, intimacy with another being was hard and lonely.

She had tried to have animal companions… but their lives ended faster than humans and so she found their cycle of life and death to bear more pain… and despite her trying to fill the missing piece that once lay comfortably on her shoulder, no other animal could replace her chameleon Pascal.

She turns to face the window and settles in the lavished chair while she rehearses in her head what her story will be when she lands in the quieter parts of New York. She had settled on working for a quiet bookstore – it was quiet and almost always desolate. That way, she can work quietly and blend in with the crowd. She'll say that she's trying to earn money for tuition as an English major, when in reality, during those days she isn't working, she'd most likely be volunteering under a nursing home. Then she'll keep up this rouse until she'll move to – she still has to decide – when the lack of aging in her face becomes noticeable.

She had just come from the northern parts of Canada in a cabin secluded by the tall trees, snow covered mountains and long winding rivers and lakes. To get to town, it would require a long ride so she would stock up and made it her quest to not come to town unless it was necessary. She had stayed there for 20 years, painting whatever she could and eventually sell it under various fake names she had created and then give them to her manager who she had never seen. Her manager – whoever it was (she preferred not to know them) never really questioned the identity of Rapunzel, especially with the kind of money she would pay them.

By the time the small populated Canadian Town began gossiping about her, she decided it was time to pack up and move on. By then, an old couple who had rented her apartment in New York died and their relatives had packed up everything and left the condo vacant for at least a week. She could have chosen another cottage she had in Iceland but she figured it'd be best to get acquainted with the world she had missed for 20 years before she falls behind too far in history. Then again, she can change her flight in an instance and isolate herself in Iceland because she did have someone who'd be willing to collect years of history for her to read.

Her… 'friend' Avner Narkis was part of a Jewish family she kept hidden in her home while the Germans – her own people – swept through homes trying to take whoever they could. By then, Rapunzel had made quite a name for herself – a noblewoman who owned many properties, including farms that luckily sustained food for her and those who remained loyal to her. While she was able to keep a fair share of Jewish families hidden, when the war ended, she supplied all the families and their children with money and education. Avner had grown up to be an accountant and later came back to become Rapunzel's own personal accountant, confidant and adviser. She hardly bothered him because he was too busy managing her underground businesses, stock markets, investments and current news that she would read to catch up to the current time. Throughout that time, they had built a strong relationship and she soon opened up parts of herself that she wouldn't to other people – like the flower inside her that kept her alive for centuries.

She couldn't believe that he was retiring – he was already 73 and she had known him since he was 7. That was the most painful part over bonding with people but pain had turned into nothing more than bitter whiskey – it takes more to knock you out. A deep breath escapes her… Avner had told her that he had been training a young man to take over all his responsibilities when he passes. The future was a thought that would quickly become a reality and the only way to keep that thought far for now was to sleep.

123

There was a tap on her arm and a gentle male's voice called out to her. She knew she could dwell on the soft voice, skew it in her mind to make it sound like Eugene's, though she hardly remembered how it sounded like so she instead forced her eyes open and realized that they had landed and Charlie was just waking her up. "We've arrived." He smiled. They were already on the ground and the plane was heading towards the airport to park. They waited for further instructions and soon Charlie stood to get the luggage on the top counters.

He motioned for his son, Aaron, to come and take some of the hand carries while he reached down to pick up Lizzie. The still sleeping Lizzie cozied her arms around her father's neck and rested her head in the crook of his shoulder while he carried her with one arm and the other he held on a duffle bag. "It was nice meeting you Rapunzel." He tells her. "Hope you enjoy it in New York."

"Thanks, I hope LA goes smoothly for you." Rapunzel wishes back to Charlie and Claire who reveals her swelling belly when she stands – she's pregnant with their 3rd child. Once the family were out of sight, Rapunzel stood to grab her luggage before walking out to say goodbye to the attendants and captain. Down the hallway and through the luggage grab, she nears the exit of the airplane and sees Avner holding sign that said "Mrs. Fitzherbert". His gray balding head, his droopy nose and his large sweet smile is still the same as she had last seen it.

"Oh Avner." She sighs with deep content before opening her arms for a long hug. "How I've missed you." She says.

"And I to you." He lets out a hearty laugh. It wasn't until they part, she sees a young lad beside him. He's a handsome fellow with short curly hair and he has a nervous energy around him. "Well let me introduce you, this is my grandson Gedaliah."

"Ah, the youngest out of 5?" Rapunzel remembers.

"Yes, he is." Avner reaches out to pat his grandson's back and notions him to meet Rapunzel.

"H-Hello Miss." He bows and shows a hand.

"You choose one, boy, not both." Avner corrects Ged and the lad straightens his posture to reveal a red face. Rapunzel takes the hand and he gives it a firm shake.

"Don't worry Gedaliah, this age didn't turn me into an old witch." She winks at the male which caused him to turn redder. "And we'll have years to get to know each other, I must admit however, that I'll miss your grandfather very much." She says, looking at Avner and gives him a one armed hug. Avner pecks her cheek and notions his grandson to carry the luggage as he shows Rapunzel out to the black Cadillac.

123

Jack Frost had been the recent name spreading among the children. As he raced down the streets of New York, freezing whatever it is he could land on or hover over, he would wave a hand or say a quick greeting to the children who saw him with wild bedazzlement. Life's gotten much easier now that he wasn't so alone. Despite him complaining over E, he enjoyed that bunny's company.

He flew past the crowded streets, bringing with him a large draft of wind that swept people nearly off the streets before bolting up the buildings and giving frost on each window. He flew up and down and up and down again before going across and into the central park and towards the buildings again. With a burst of energy he reached the top of the last building and sat on the rooftop, admiring his work before floating gently onto the ground like a snowflake.

He enjoyed the mass amount of people in New York, he felt part of it because New York ignored everyone, including dear Jack. This season was extremely busy with Christmas just around the corner, and so there were more children walking down the streets than normal times of the year. He made a quick stop to a pastry shop to grab a donut as quietly as he could before and blending back into the sea of people. To a normal eye, it would look like a floating donut but no one had the time to take another look over. As he finished it with two big bites, he couldn't help but stare at a blonde female exiting a black Caddy. She was beautiful but that wasn't the reason why he couldn't help but stare at her… she looked familiar. Extremely familiar and it bothered him that he couldn't put a finger on it. Perhaps she was a granddaughter of someone famous back in the day thus carrying familiar traits?

So indulged in his thoughts, he hadn't realized the people who walked through him and those that did, sneezed loudly. He was caught by one particularly loud sneeze and turned to look over his shoulder to quickly say sorry to those who had walked through him and when he looked back towards the familiar female, he caught her staring… at him. A jolt ran through his body and he threw himself in an alley. He pressed himself against the wall and took deep breathes to calm his raging mind. No adult could see him… well, unless they believed without a doubt… no, she must have been staring at someone other than him… but that eye lock. He ran a hand through his hair and peeked over the wall, expecting her to still be there but instead he sees a young man exit the Cadillac with luggage and enter the building right behind her.

He walked through the wall and drew on his hood – though he doubted it would hide him properly, after all, he carried a large staff and walked around bare feet with questionably looking clothes. As he kept walking on the marble flooring, he heard a soft voice call out to him. He turned his head and saw a young lady beside her parent waving at him. He sheepishly waved back – even a young child new it was him despite his hood on. Through the corner of his eye, he saw the woman and two men enter the elevator and before they turned around to face his way, he ducked behind a counter, earning a giggle from the young child who had been watching him.

He smiled back and placed a finger of his mouth. She covered her laugh with chubby hands and nodded. It was then, her mother looked at her daughter and asked what she was doing but she just shook her head and shrugged. Jack smiled and gave a thumbs up to the child before turning his attention back to the woman who caught his attention in the first place. The elevator doors were closed in a split moment of flashing thoughts, his eyes raised to look at the lights on top of the elevator lighting up and settling at 21.

He pushed himself up and spun into the air, through the ceiling and counted each floor he passed until he settled in the hallway of floor 21. Looking to his left and right, he could not see her but he could hear quiet chatters. He followed the sounds and entered a dead end, two doors across from each other – which one? He pressed his ear against the door to the right but could not hear a thing so he moved to the one on the left. There he could hear a conversation. "Rapunzel… Gedaliah will take you around the city to show you were things are." A deep croaky voice said.

"Thanks Avner and Gedaliah." A feminine voice responded, this Jack, figured, is Rapunzel.

"Oh, uhm, Mrs. Fitzherbert. Are you sure you don't need help unpacking?"

"No, I'm alright Ged."

"Call us if you need anything. We'll be back later with groceries." When their footsteps approached the door, Jack stepped back and looked around for a place to hide. He jumped through the window and floated by the side of the building until he was staring into Rapunzel's apartment through her floor to ceiling tall windows. It was tidy, empty and the colours were mute. He watched the woman kneel in front of a bookshelf and pull a thick album out of her bag.

Each delicate yellowed page she flipped would take a moment of her time as she dwelt on the contents, her frown grew deeper and the bags under her eyes were more evident. Curiosity and a mixture of supernatural attraction drew him closer towards Rapunzel until he stood behind her, peering into the images and letter stuck onto the book. She ran a finger over the old dry ink while Jack read them. It was when he finished, had he realized it was a letter addressed to Rapunzel… from someone named Eugene. To sum it up, the letter had talked about missing Rapunzel while he was a way hunting with his father-in-law. She flipped onto the next page and saw a sketch of a fairly handsome man with a woman who looks like Rapunzel. He bent over to get a genuine look at the sketch and those large eyes form the female bore straight into him and through his mind.

"Jack." The calling of his name forced him back and he tumbled over. He remained quiet – was she talking to him? Or recalling a name from her memories? "Yes, you. Jack with the staff and the father of winter." She glances over her shoulder and smiles at him. He's flustered and he can feel his cheek warm as her green eyes continue to stare at him.

"Y-you can see me?" He asked in astonishment.

"Well, when you come around my age after seeing things that shouldn't exist, you begin to believe. And besides, why wouldn't I remember the man who saved me?" She said.

"Saved?" He floated near her and examined her face and tried to think of anything that would trigger his memory.

"Yup, it was… around 1960 in New Orleans Louisiana. A bunch of men tried to rob me but winter blew in out of nowhere?"

"Oh! Wait. So. You're." He couldn't find the right words and fumbled over his thoughts. "And that sketch…" He pointed at the scrapbook.

"Yup, I'm still alive and young." She looked down at the floor out of shame.

"H-How? You're not a wandering spirit like what I used to be, are you? Where you chosen by the moon?"

"The moon? No. I was 'chosen' by the sun." She told him.

"And humans can see you?"

"Yes because technically, I still am a human."

"…but you're alive and young." He sputtered, scratching his head in confusion.

"My mother had complications while she was pregnant with me so out of desperation, my father had heard of a magical flower that landed on earth from the sun. When he had found it, they had blessed it over my mom and now it is part of me. It's kept me alive… it doesn't want to die."

"Oh." Jack couldn't say anything else, he averted her painful gaze that bore into his soul. It sucked the energy out of him. She stood and patted the dust off of her skirt and offered her hand. He looked back at her and reached for her hand. Their contact was warm and when she let go of it, he looked at his palm and held onto the lingering odd sensation before he was called into the kitchen.

He glided past the carpet and into the tiled, small kitchen where Rapunzel was boiling water. "Are you fine with tea?"

"Uhm yeah." His hand shot past her, far passing hers as they both reached for the tin can. Just as her hand clung on the tea can, his larger hand wrapped around hers, causing a jolt of electricity to run through his body, starting from his hand. The shock forced both of them to hold eye contact while he handed her the can. He looked away before his face got too warm and turned to sit on a free chair tucked in the corner of the cramped space.

"So." Rapunzel breaks the silence. "What's your story?" She takes a freshly cleaned mug and situates it on the table.

"Erm, the long version?" He asks, thanking her as she poured the hot water in the mug. He stared into it, watching a green colour emit from the bag and spread throughout the liquid. His trance was broken when Rapunzel placed a spoon in his cup.

"Yes, the long version." She repeats with a small chuckle. Jack expected her to sit but instead she comes back with a wine glass and wine bottle in hand. The red liquid soon escaped its lips and entered into the goblet shaped glass, the thick liquid swished around before settling.

"Well. I lived on earth for years without knowing who I was." He shrugged, taking a sip of warm tea. "I had a connection with the moon and I believed it told me my name is Jack. I lived aimlessly, doing anything for entertainment and then, lo and behold, I was called to be a guardian. There I met other guardians: E. Aster Bunnymund the spirit of Easter, Toothiana the tooth fairy, Sandman who gives children good dreams and Nicholas St. North AKA Santa. Guardians are called to protect children and their innocence and so when an evil man named Pitch Black threatened those children, we were called to war. He would give nightmares to children and lived through their fear, through that, children began to lose belief in us, forcing our energy out. Hope seemed lost as we tried to protect the last believer."

"Last believer?" Rapunzel raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," He smiled. "Guardians need the beliefs of children in order to keep living."

"Then that indicator must have been broken, I'm sure I still believed." Her warm voice and smile caused him his cheeks to turn pink.

"Long story short, I didn't want to be a guardian. I was only in it to find my lost memories. I found them during my lowest point, it was then I found faith and became the guardian I was called to be. Before I was chosen, I had protected my sister from sinking into an icy lake and through that sacrifice I was chosen."

"Wow."

"Ha, yeah." He rubbed his nose and wrapped his hands around the warm mug, looking at his reflection. "Well, we won against Pitch and I've been living life with more purpose now. I've got to protect those who believe. Including you." He couldn't help but give a sheepish grin at Rapunzel due to how cheeky his comment sounded. He cleared his through and asked. "What about you?"

The brunette smiled and took a sip of the sweet wine. "It's a terribly long story." She comments but Jack doesn't move an inch as he waits. "Well… I was born in a kingdom known as Corona in Germany…" Her tale continued to her kidnapped and captivity, to her uncanny hero, the floating lanterns, her 'mother' dying, her duties as she learned to be a princess, her wedding, their children… the fleeting days as Eugene aged, as her children aged, as she soon became a folklore to the citizens and soon disappeared around Europe, her tales of communication, the World Wars, her encounter with famous people of the past – one specifically Walter Disney.

The wine glass presented as empty and she looked up, half expecting Jack to be asleep but his eye were open and deep in thought as he processed all that information. "I can't image the pain of watching everyone you know die." He whispers.

"It's painful. I hate to admit it and I had tried ending my own life just to escape the pain but the flower wouldn't let me." There was a distant noise as her front door cranked open. Avner and Gedaliah entered with bags full of grocery.

"Rapunzel?" Avner called out.

"In here." Jack stayed and saw the old and young enter.

"Tea and wine?" Avner asks.

"I had a guest." She winks at Jack who was clearly not seen by the two.

"Oh?" Avner says while filling the fridge with food.

"I'd like to visit you again." Jack tells her. He knew. Part of him knew and needed and wanted to protect her whatever happiness she had left. To see her smile as she did when retelling the tale of how her and her husband met. "This is Christmas Week." He tells her and despite her staring at Gedaliah, he knew she was listening. "I'd like to take you out somewhere for Christmas." He says. "I'm going to be busy, brining snow around but I'll make it. I promise." Rapunzel looks at him and just before he leaves, she tells him to wait.

"Sorry what?" Gedaliah asks.

"Oh, sorry Ged." Rapunzel tells him. "Nothing, continue doing what you're doing." She sneaks out of the kitchen and comes back with a small bottle with liquid inside while a thin leather string holds the bottle. "This is for you." She whispers. "My tears heal anything." She slips the necklace through Jack's head. "Thanks for listening." She pecks his cheeks. "Bye." It was then, Jack slipped through the floor, passing each level until he forces his head to clear his before slipping through the main ground level. Floating on his back he takes a deep breath.

"Rapunzel." He whispers taking the bottle in his hand, he examined the liquid inside before gripping it tightly. He knew then, he'd bring back her smile and give her a purpose. He knew what it felt like living on earth alone and yet he also knew the exciting company of immortal friends. Next stop would be North Pole, he'll have to inform Mrs. North that there will be a plus one for their yearly Christmas dinner.

_123456789_

This is a short story! With only three chapters, so two more! Just a nice break between my Zelink story.

God bless :)


	2. A Dance Under the Lights

Mending the Heart

Chapter Two: A Dance Under the Lights

Christmas was just around the corner and if you were a blind man, the incredibly cold weather would be evidence enough of the upcoming holiday. However, Rapunzel was not blind and so she could easily enjoy the sights of the bright shimmery lights and neon colours that made you yearn to hear the accompanying choir of Christmas melodies.

It was early in the morning, the sky was still dark blue and thus New York below had a grey undertone. Rapunzel would have to wait until later in the night when the lights and motions where in full bloom. This was something she had missed in the forests of Canada and now that it was 20 years more than the last city she had seen, designs were far more extravagant. She couldn't believe that it only took 20 years for society to advance this far.

Her heels clicked against the cold cement street as the dust like snow swept under her feet and into the quiet streets filled with sleeping cars; the few that were awake buzzed by without interrupting her thoughts. Soon she neared the corner to turn into the street of the bookstore she worked in.

A gust of wind blew against her face and she ducked her neck closer into her scarf. She glanced at her reflection on the windowpanes of the unlit stores lined across the street. Some were just opening; she could see some workers settling into the darkness, she saw her reflection and almost jumped at her blonde hair. She had worn her brown hair for so long that it was only recently she'd decide to change it back along with a haircut so her hair was just touching the small of her back rather than draping over her bottom.

Eventually she had reached the bookstore and she could already see the lights opened in the emporium. She raised her hand to the handle of the door and was welcomed with a chime. "Surry! The store hasn't been opened yet." There was a heavy accented shout from somewhere in the bookshelves.

"Then you should have kept the door locked." Rapunzel giggled and proceeded to do just that. When she turned around, her red-headed co-worker poked her head through one of the shelves and smiled when she recognized who it was.

"I was ubout to tell you to read the sign." Her co-worker grinned.

"Morning to you too Meredith." Rapunzel greeted, climbing up the stairs and down middle line towards the cashier's desk. Up on the high ceiling was a large ornate window to reflect warm light to create a golden glow throughout the entire store. She pulled her scarf off and began to loosen the buttons on her jacket as she sat down in front of the computer to log her hours in. From afar, Meredith dropped a heavy box and caught up to Rapunzel.

"So Punz, I had been wondering." Turquoise eyes met green as Rapunzel gave her a puzzled look. "So this time around, I'm the one hosting Christmas dinner. It would be cool if you'd come." The blonde rose from her chair and made her way to the back so she could go to her locker. "I'm not the best chief but I got some other friends who are willing. It isn't a party scene – just small and intimate." Meredith followed her co-worker and in her mind, begged that she would say yes.

"What time?" Rapunzel asked as she opened her locker and hung her coat inside.

"Well," Meredith paused, looking up. "Today is Christmas Eve, so tomorrow at 6?" She says, looking back at Rapunzel.

"Hmm," Rapunzel thought for a moment, having hand on each end of her scarf. Her lips pouted as she thought of Jack then looked at Meredith. "Sure, but I'll have to leave earlier. I got something planned."

"Oh?" Meredith's eyebrow rose. "Could it be a date?" She teased and was almost surprised to find Rapunzel smiling. They were never the type to talk about boys and when they did, Rapunzel would always tune out.

"Perhaps." Rapunzel giggled back and closed her locker.

"Oh, you have to tell me who it is!" Meredith begged as she tailed after Rapunzel who walked to the front.

123

It was finally Christmas and despite the joyful celebration, Rapunzel was nervous. She turned around and looked over her shoulder as she stared at her back in the purple dress through her mirror. Avner and Ged both assured her that this was a dress people wore today. The dress just cut below her knee, it was her exposed shoulders that she couldn't let people see, it was something that belonged to her children when they needed a cry or rest; it was something claimed by her husband with faded kisses.

She walked away from the mirror and rummaged through her closet to look for a white shawl. When she found one, she wrapped it over her shoulders and began to place her jewellery before heading to her front door. On the small side table by the door was small gift bag with an envelope attached to it. In beautiful cursive it said: _Jack_.

123

The walk to Meredith's house was a time for thought collecting so she'd know how to answer their every question according to her current façade. However, in all honesty, she could have settled these thoughts with a car ride but she had insisted that Avner and Ged go home and spend time with their family. They had invited her but she told them she had other plans – to which they were happy for her: that she was making friends.

Also, Rapunzel preferred not to own a car in New York. There was no point in owning one in a crowded state. A bicycle perhaps but that was stored away until the snow cleared. When she reached Trowell Lane, she pulled out a crumbled piece of paper from her pockets and looked at the address. 63.

After passing a handful of crammed townhouses, she reached finally reached the number. It was beige and on it's black door in golden cursive had the number 63. It's curtains were pulled so it was hard to see who was inside. Slowly but surely, she made it up the stairs and placed a closed fist in front of the door.

The wind continued to blow and from a distance, there was the faint singing of carollers. She wasn't sure how long she had stood there before she knocked and when she had, the chatter inside quickly died. From outside, if Rapunzel held her breath, she could hear the slight creaking of wood as Meredith, she guessed, approached the door. And lo and behold, as the black door opened, her co-worker greeted Rapunzel. Blue eyes widened and matched her bright smile.

"Punzie, Merry Christmas!" The host giggled, stepping out of the way so Rapunzel could enter. As she walked inside, from far off the corridor, she could see two people step out of the dining room. One was a fairly handsome man with a beard and another was a woman of odd warmth. What Rapunzel was most glad about is the fact that she went appropriately dressed. Meredith wore a long beautiful strapless forest green dress, the other female had a silver strapped short a line while the man presented a nice suit.

"Merry Christmas," The male approached her. His voice was deep and slightly raspy as he held out a hand. She took it after Meredith took her jacket off. There was a firm exchange of handshakes. "I'm Hiccup," He smiled and stepped back so the female beside him could introduce herself.

"Merry Christmas. I'm Astrid." She stepped forward with utter confidence and an open hand while the other rested against her hip. After the introduction, Rapunzel folded her hands towards her collarbone where her and Eugene's rings hung from her necklace. It was only during these moments that she remembered that she kept the ring close to her. It made her feel comforted with the memory of her late husband when he would usually have his arms around her waist and pull her towards him. Declaring proudly that together they were a couple at a ballroom gathering – the dresses and the formal exchange brought her to some painful memories.

"Merry Christmas." Rapunzel said to the fair sized group of people.

"Hey come on now." Meredith said, grabbing her hand and guiding her towards the dining room. The table had a simple centrepiece of pinecones and various evergreen needles with thick candle to add to the solemn mood of Christmas. The plates were stacked on top of each other with a formal amount of eating utensils lined by the main plates. "Everyone sit down!" Meredith exclaims with giddiness as she escapes to the kitchen. Both Astrid and Hiccip sit side by side on opposite of Rapunzel and the empty seat that belonged to Meredith's.

"So are Christmas parties always this fancy?" Rapunzel asks, making light talk. She was certain that college kids this generation never did anything fancy – that drinking and debauchery were good enough to be claimed as a successful party.

"Well," Hiccup started, grinning as he stared at Astrid. He made a face as if he was about to say yes but he replied with the opposite. "Nah, Meredith's just trying something new." He winked. Just then, Meredith walked inside with a large chicken in pan. The aroma filled the room and its warm aura eagerly invited 2 cats in – which Rapunzel did not even recognize until now. One was completely black with glowing green eyes while the other was white with hints of blue with yellow eyes. The two cats easily jumped on the table, causing Hiccup to stand.

"Toothless!" He commanded with a firm voice. "Down!" The black cat mewed and looked the other way in disappointment before jumping down as easily as he jumped up. The other cat just cocked her head to the side in slight amusement, waiting for her own command.

"Stormfly," Astrid strict call was enough to shoo the other.

"Sorry, we always gotta bring those two with us." Hiccup apologized, sitting back down. His eyes moved over from Astrid to Meredith who nervously grinned at Rapunzel. To a normal person's eyes, they would undoubtedly be suspicious but Rapunzel shrugged.

"I totally understand." She laughs as she thinks of her friend Pascal. The other three share a quiet stare before releasing the breath that they all held.

"Well, here's the chicken roast and I'll be back with more stuff." Meredith tells them, going back to the kitchen.

"I'll help you." Astrid stands, placing a hand on Hiccup's shoulder before following the redhead. This left the Hiccup and Rapunzel alone with the two cats sitting quietly on the corner. Toothless was lying down while the other cat intently examined Rapunzel.

"So-"

"Well-" Both of them stopped and waited for the other to continue but noticing that none would, they opened their mouths as they insisted the other to go first. Eventually, Rapunzel relented.

"Are you and Astrid together?" Rapunzel asked.

"Yes." Hiccup says with a smile.

"Wow, how long?"

"Hmm," He looked at Astrid who entered with a pot of mashed potatoes. "How long has it been dear? Since we were together?"

"4 years."

"Oh wow." Rapunzel says. "So if you two came straight into college, you started dating in high school?" The couple looks at each other nervously before staring at Meredith.

"Yes…" Astrid responds slowly.

"But we've known each other for longer actually." Hiccup places a hand over hers. "We grew up together actually, it wasn't until a hund-" Meredith began coughing loudly into her elbow, catching the attention of everyone. The only male in the room was confused until he finally realized. "It wasn't until _4_ years ago," He corrected himself, "did we start dating." He grinned, proud of himself and in the corner – unknown to Rapunzel - Toothless placed a paw on his head in a disappointed look while the other cat snickered.

"That's sweet." Rapunzel comments. "What about you Meredith? Are you with anyone?" Meredith's blue eyes avoided the gazes and looked at her food.

"Long time ago." She just smiled and that was enough for Rapunzel to understand. Somehow, despite the lack of details, she knew that this person was special to Meredith. "Well," Meredith said, collecting the melancholy atmosphere in the room with one excited tone. She sat in her seat, settled the napkin on her lap and looked at her friends. "Shall we eat?"

And on queue, toothless jumped up on an old side table that held up an old phonograph. Old Christmas songs melodiously sung into the atmosphere.

123

Jack had been working overclock to get snow around the world. He had just finished on time and despite how tired he should be, he was more than excited to get back to New York and introduce Rapunzel to the rest of his friends. Despite how dark it was tonight, in the middle of the ocean without light pollution – the stars shined bright and reflected over the ripples of the quiet seas.

He was just entering into the North Pacific Ocean from the Bering Sea. Thinking of Rapunzel, he pushed himself to fly even faster than before.

123

The fireplace was lit by now in the living room where everyone was gathered in a game of charades: Meredith and Hiccup verses Astrid and Rapunzel. In the midst of laughter and wine, the grand clock tolled its bell when it reached 10. It meant that it was time for Rapunzel to leave. Everyone pouted but still felt light in their hearts.

"I'll go get your jacket." Meredith told her as she went into the hallway so Rapunzel had time to stay with the other two whom she quickly befriended.

"It's too bad you have to go and meet up with this Jack person, whoever he is." Astrid teased. "He sounds really ordinary, ditch him and stay with us."

"I wish I could but a promise is a promise." Rapunzel responds in singsong and could not repress her smile as a small part of her grew excited to meet Jack. All the playful teasing from her friends had made her forget what it was like to be attracted to a man. She was attracted to Jack, no doubt about it but in comparison to her late husband; Eugene always managed to swift those feelings away even in the grave. Just then, Meredith came in from behind with Rapunzel's open jacket. The blonde pulled her arms through and made her way to the door while everyone followed her.

"I'll walk you home." Hiccup offered, grabbing his jacket.

"No, I couldn't possibly." Rapunzel declined, glancing at the two other ladies.

"He insists." Astrid lightly patted her boyfriend's shoulder and kissed his cheek. "It's late. A girl shouldn't be alone at this time." Rapunzel stared out the door and she agreed; it was pretty late.

"Thank you." Was all she could say, so she waited for Hiccup to prepare before the two headed out and they all wished their Christmas's one last time.

"Where do you live?" He asked her, guiding her to a silver car parked in front of Meredith's beige home.

"An apartment near the heart of New York, along central park on Fifth Avenue." She told him, opening the front of the door but stopped when a black thing swooped inside. After it settled, she realized it was Toothless.

"Toothless…" Hiccup started. "Come on buddy, why don't you go in the back and let Punz sit up front?" Toothless mewed and did exactly that before Rapunzel settled inside. It was cold inside but a lot warmer than the direct outside. She buckled in while Hiccup ignited the car and turned the heat up.

"Alright, sorry – near central park?" He asks.

"Yes." He presses into the gas pedal and begins to move into the road.

"You must be rich then." He teased as he failed to notice Rapunzel's cringe.

"It was my great aunts." She quickly said.

"Relax, Punz. Being rich is cool." Noticing that it was quiet inside the car, Hiccup turned on the radio as they listened to old Christmas songs. Both parties found no reason to talk and was comfortable in their own silence. Not before long, they were in fifth avenue due to the nearly empty streets. It was an odd thing to see everything quiet and silent.

"I have no idea how you'd sleep here. It's always so bright." He tells her as he parks the car in front of the building. Lights blinked from every direction to celebrate this very day.

"I have no idea either. Thanks so much Hiccup. It was nice meeting you and Merry Christmas." She left the car and made her way upstairs. In the lobby, she passed by Randy, the security guard whom she greeted with a Merry Christmas and a small box of Ferrero. As each floor got closer to her floor, her stomach squirmed uncomfortably as her mind wandered where Jack could be.

123

Jack was breathless by the time he had arrived in central park. He knew her building because, before he went off to go on his quest, he made sure to remember every detail of it. He wasn't quite sure how to enter. He could fly through her window or he could approach her door like a normal person… but he wasn't normal nor was Rapunzel herself.

He kicked himself off the cement ground and glided to her floor and peeked into her apartment. It was dark and everything looked untouched. He entered slowly and placed his hand inside his sweater pocket as he fiddled with a small bottle.

123

Anxious, tired and excited, Rapunzel approached her white door and went through her keys before finding the right one.

123

From the inside, Jack could hear the slight turning of the doorknob. Then as expected, the doors opened and Rapunzel came into view. He was awestruck by her beauty. She was dressed, her makeup done and her hair bundled into an elegant bun.

123

Rapunzel looked up and saw Jack's familiar silhouette and smiled. "Merry Christmas Jack." She reached for the gift she had settled near the table by the door. "I got this for you." They both approached each other and Jack pulled his hand from his pockets and held out a bottle.

"I also got this for you." Inside was a perfectly sculpted snowflake the size of a palm. They exchanged gifts and each person held it in their hand. Both were enticed with the objects they had just received.

"You can open it if you want." Rapunzel said softly. Jack looked at her before focusing back on the gift. Delicately he raised a finger and pulled the tape as slowly as he could so he would not damage the paper. Eventually he unfolded it to reveal a small detailed-carved wood box. He opened it and a gentle melody began to play as a tiny figure of Jack spun around according to the music. Just when he thought that was it, a small figure of Rapunzel joined his side and began to dance with him.

"Wow." He whispered and kept watching the small characters interact.

"I have very good friends." She whispered.

"Mine isn't as good…" He told her with a slight pout.

"Are you joking? It's so beautiful… and it's floating and glowing. I don't think it melts does it?" She asked, her green eyes wide as she stared into his blue eyes.

"No, it doesn't. I, uhm, sculpted it with all the snow from around the world." Jack looked down at his hands and Rapunzel allowed her hands to hover over his to reassurance him. At this moment, Jack's eyes darted upwards to stare at her. They locked eyes and like a magnet, they both leaned for each other. The music seemed to encourage this touchy scene until it clicked to an end thus interrupting what they were about to do.

Rapunzel recoiled back and her hand clutched onto her necklace where her wedding bands were. "I'll go put this in my room." She said and quickly disappeared into her room without taking off her coat. Jack looked out the windows and made his way to the couch to plop down. Both hands settled on the music box and he opened the box again to examine the contents. He wasn't sure if he should unwind it again. The card that she had given him along with his present was inside his pockets.

His finger ran towards the side of the box where the lever was to wind it up again. The tiny instrument drummed and clicked as he whirled it before letting go. The characters began to dance again and the cute melody poured into the room.

"So," Rapunzel's voice disturbed Jack's mindless zone and he closed the cover to stop the box from playing its song. He looked over his shoulder and could see Rapunzel standing by her door. Her clothes were different now, she had changed into a pair of jeans and a sweater. Her face was clear of make up and her hair was no longer elegantly done but tied up in a high ponytail. "What did you have in mind?" He grinned and placed the music box in his pocket.

"Have you ever gone skating before?" He stood and raised an eyebrow. This quant gesture caused her own eyebrow to raise as he approached her. He drew his hand out with his palms up and empty. Noticing Rapunzel's puzzled look, he smirked and blew an icy breath on her and the summon of light snow confused Rapunzel for a moment.

"What did-" Just as she was going to ask, her feet slowly rose from the ground - something she shouldn't be able to do and she grabbed onto Jack. He kicked his feet off the carpet and held onto her elbow to balance her.

"Now, no one should be able to see us. Hold on." He pulls her close and without a warning, he dashed through her window.

As he flew through the skies, he could feel her grip tighten. She was quiet but he saw her eyes widen with delight and excitement as she witnessed the once busy city below her turn into a town found in a snow globe. Jack's hand went from her waist to crawl towards her hand and take hers within his. She stretched her head back to stare at him. "Let go." He whispers. There was a moment of silence as she debated in her head whether to listen or not to but she figured there was nothing else to loose so she did. With her arms spread wide, she was flying beside Jack. Laughter filled the air as she tried to fly on her own.

The buildings and cars looked small from way up high. The adrenaline and excitement masked the obvious: it was freezing cold. As she breathed, wisps of grey fog escaped her opened smiling mouth and nose but they quickly passed on at the speed they were flying in. She let out a shrill laugh and even spun in the air herself, daring Jack to do his own spins around her and gently prompted her to do something even more impressive. She closed her eyes, spun into a perfect circle before diving below into central park. Jack's smile quickly opened from shock in response to Rapunzel's move and for a few seconds as he collected his thoughts, he dived under, only able to follow her trail of laughter.

By the time Jack had made it to her side, the ground was already closing in until she made a sharp turn so that she'd be parallel to the snow covered grass. She laughed, allowing herself to loosen up. In the midst of free float, she failed to notice the group of trees in time; her body froze as she realized she wouldn't have enough time to turn upwards. She crossed her arms in front of her until a strong arm wrapped around her waist, pushed her back and suddenly the G's hit her stomach as her saviour flew like a rocket and pummelled through the weak branches. She was comforted by Jack's overwhelming presence. Once they were in the air, Rapunzel looked up to face her saviour.

"A little too excited there bird." He said with breathes in between. Tired, yet willing, he smiled. An unfamiliar feeling overwhelmed the blonde and her hand reached up on their own as she picked the small sticks from his hair. Blue eyes wandered to where she had touched him and he was thrown off that they were actually touching - that they both shared the same realm. Blue eyes met green.

The wind rattled by them, interrupting the moment. An awkward silence fell on the two as they both looked away from each other. "I-I'll take you to where I had wanted us to go to." He spoke softly and reached into his pocket to pull out a glowing sphere. He threw it into the air before it exploded into soft windy tunnel. "Ready? He asked as he held onto her hand. Breathless, excited and curious Rapunzel nodded quickly as she squeezed Jack's hand. Together they both entered into the circular swirl of bright neon colours.

The sensation was incredibly warm as they passed through the portal. In a flash both Rapunzel and Jack were over a long frozen river. In the distance a green copper roofed building protected the weathered old mason building. The evergreens bloomed and the Christmas lights brought comfort in the usually dark night. "I feel like I've been here before…" Rapunzel said softly as Jack guided her down onto the solid ice.

"It's Canada." He tells her with a smile. When their feet touch the ground he opens his palm to form a powder of white sparkle. A soft wind guides the glitter to her feet to form a pair of glass skates. "Hopefully you know how to skate." He grins, steadying her on her feet.

"I have gone skating before…" She tried to smile but the last time she skated was at least a few decades ago. This caused Jack to let out a warm laugh.

"If you've skated before, you can skate again and if you fall, I'll be here to catch you." He begins to skate away from her; his attention was devoted to her presence as his hand never left hers as he gently coaxed her forward. The growing distance between them made Rapunzel nervous but it was enough to encourage her forth. The blades on her skates were sharp as ever but a lot more difficult for her to wield. Step by step she moved forth with Jack just within an arms length. The beginning was rickety and her slight slip made Jack lurch forward as her head tapped against his strong chest and her hands fall on his forearm.

"Sorry." She squeaked.

"Hey, it's fine. You're on a roll. Don't stop." He steadies her before distancing himself once more but unlike before, he was at least 5 meters away from her. With a large breath of release, she slightly bent her knees and used her right foot to push her forward thus causing her to glide towards and past Jack. Surprised and engaged, Jack raises an eyebrow before bolting after her. "You remember now?" He asks when he catches up to her.

"I do!" She grins as she increases her speed. As she kept a steady pace, Jack began to show off with various twirls and spins. Eventually, he got ahead of himself and began to throw ice sculpture into the air. In a fit of laughter, Rapunzel failed to notice the turn and was headed straight for the edge. She braced herself for what would come and hoped that the pile of snow would be enough to soften her fall. As her body moved closer to the Jack noticed what had just happened and dove for her. His arms wrapped around her waist and lifted her up into the air. "So I forgot how to stop." She says slowly as she opens her eyes to stare back at him. Her cheeks begin to warm as she recalls the embarrassment from just a few minutes ago.

"I saw that." He laughs and moves his hand towards hers, which made her realize she was once again floating. From a distance, a loud chime rings in the cool breeze air to single that it had just turned 12. "Oh perfect, Christmas is over." He says with a smile. "Time for dinner then." The glass skates that once encased her feet had melted off her and met with the ice below. She quickly glanced at puddle that turned into solid ice before looking curiously at Jack.

"Dinner?" She asks.

"Well, yes. Christmas is over so Santa often hosts a celebration after the big two five. I'm really excited to show you to everyone." He grabs a snow globe from his pocket and whispers to it.

"I didn't think we'd eat." Rapunzel tells him as he tosses the ball into the air. "Because I had come from a dinner party."

"That's okay." He tells her. "As long as you're at the table with us." The ball explodes into a burst of colours before Jack flew in with Rapunzel's hand tightly held in his.

123

In a whirl of action they were in the middle of a long tundra of glacier and sharp cliffs. As if by miracle, a red castle hung by it's very side onto the very face of the tall glaciers and had none of it's foundations found on it's bottom as normal castles were. "This is the Claus's home." He tells her, flying with her towards the magic building.

"It's a lot different than I thought it'd be." She tells him, lagging slightly behind in her flight but she was never too far because he had such a firm grip on her.

"Oh, trust me. That's not the only different thing around here either. You should meet Santa man himself."

123

They had approached the front door but it seemed almost silly to have once considering the fact that Jack could have used the globe to take them somewhere inside the actual castle. Also, the front steps were grounded to nothing but the open abyss that would surely lead to your death if you could not fly. Good thing it's visitors could or had some other way of getting around.

Rapunzel was still in awe and looked out into the open expanse of landscape that cradled and hid Santa's workshop. It truly was something she would never conceive with her very own creative mind – it was something that honestly surprised her and lately, as she has grown with age, it has been hard to surprise her. She had almost forgotten what it was to be surprised until she met Jack. A loud ancient bell tolled and chimed into a melody that grabbed her attention to the architecture that fascinated her beyond belief. She noticed Jack's hand lowering from a button on the side of the wall and figured that he had activated the doorbell.

The giant doors creaked opened and revealed a large blue yeti. "Oh my gosh." Rapunzel whispered under her breath while Jack waved a hello to the creature.

"Hey there, I've come with a guest." This signalled Rapunzel to be beside Jack and she waved a nervous hand to greet the yeti. The furry creature groaned and rolled his eyes at the very familiar face of Jack before moving his body out of the way for them to enter. "I know that was slightly dramatic. Nobody really uses the front door but today, I figured it'd be a good excuse for me to use it and see what the foyer looks like." He tells her as he confidently walks down the familiar tall hallways. Aligned and decorated with portraits of Christmas related things whether stockings, wreathes, ribbons and lights, there was not a corner in sight that did not embody the definition of what Christmas was and is. "Where'd you think Mrs. Claus is?" Jack asks the yeti that was tailing them. The friendly creature lets out a chorus of unrecognizable sounds. "Kitchen? Got yah. Thanks for opening the door by the way." Jack tells him. "I didn't mean to pull anyone out from their duty." And with those simple bids, the yeti turned a different corner to get back to what he was doing before he was interrupted.

"So are there no elves? Are the workers yeti's instead?" Rapunzel asks curiously, now beside Jack.

"There are elves but yeti's are common creatures that live here in the castle." He says and turns into another hallway. Just past two large doors and he enters in a thin hallway that lead to a normal sized door. He swung it open and lo and behold, elves and yeti's were working peacefully and cheerfully to create today's celebration feast. They were all so busy preparing and singing Christmas melodies that they did not notice the new presence except for a few that simply acknowledged Jack before heading back to work. In the middle of the warm and delicious aroma filled room stood a plump woman carrying a long list in one hand and a quill in another. She also did not notice the two until she looked their way to point an elf to go there. The woman's mouth opened wide and with a shrill voice stepped forward, careful not to disturb the busy elves that went back and forth.

"Jack! She greeted with a large warm hug and a kiss on the each cheek before stepping back with clasped hands by her chest. She smiled wide, her face seemed to melt with glee at the sight of Rapunzel. "And you must be Jack's guest. Welcome to the North Pole. I'm Gretchen North... Also known by humans as Mrs. Claus."

"I'm Rapunzel." The blonde greets back and slightly feels out of place in this very fairy tale like place.

"Rapunzel?" Gretchen says, her mouth making a small 'o'. "I believe that's one of the stories I've read to the elves here and there. But haven't we inspired the stories anyways? Is there a nickname I can call you by?" Rapunzel glances at Jack who found the entire interaction heart warming before going back to give Gretchen her entire attention.

"Well lately, my friends have been calling me Punz."

"Punz?" Both Gretchen and Jack say out of curiosity. "That's cute." Jack's thought quietly leaves his mind and was caught by Rapunzel herself whose blush hid behind her hair that had fallen from her ear.

"Well Punz." Gretchen says slowly. "I'm afraid our feast hasn't started yet. My husband Nicolas has just gotten back a few minutes ago and I've sent him to bath and rest up. The feast will start immediately after he's woken up plus I've got so much to prepare. So why don't you show her around our home Jack?" The white haired woman looks at the young male who simply nods. "I'm really glad you could join us today. Nicholas and I can't have children but I'm convinced Jack would be ours – in fact, he is. So it's good to see him occupied with someone special." Rapunzel glanced at the now flustered man before giggling.

"I'm so thankful for the invite. I'm really excited to meet everyone else."

"Oh you will, they'll be coming in a few hours. That'll give you two plenty of time to wander our home before they interrupt you." She winks at Jack before turning her back slowly to continue to rule the kitchen. Jack signalled Rapunzel towards the door and the two left, closing behind them the sounds of sizzling, boiling, Christmas carolling creatures and the aroma that once overwhelmed them soften in the hallway. They walked back to where before.

"I'll show you the meeting room. It's usually empty after Christmas." Jack starts off. As they walked towards this 'meeting' room, Rapunzel was observing the walls like always. "How long have you known Gretchen?" She asks to disturb the silence and echo of their footsteps. Which she realized – Jack was barefoot and she was still in her socks.

"Wow, around 9ish years now?" He tells her. "I know this because the kid that we took care of – Jamie, we still hang out from now and then. Real cute kid has grown up and even got himself a girlfriend now." Rapunzel's eyebrow rose. "Yeah, remember when I was telling you before how we had to protect the last kid who believed in us? Well his name was Jamie. He was the first official kid to believe and see me."

"And all these people must really be special to you."

"Yes." He says. "I'd call Gretchen my mom if I wasn't too freaked out to call Nicholas my dad – which I will never even though he acts like one. Well, here we are." He puts his hand on two grand doors in front of the foyer area and pushes them open to reveal a large expanse of area. The height of the structure was so tall that the amount of floors could be seen from where they stood. "This is actually the workshop." He tells her. "The meeting place is up there." He points up to one of the balconies and begins walking that direction. The workshop was tidy, empty and clean now that Christmas was over. As they walked through each isle, Rapunzel looked up and could see the night sky from the open ceiling or large window. It was so clear she could not tell but the most overwhelming thing she noticed when she looked up was the large globe that shined brightly with millions of tiny yellow lights.

"I'm guessing that's the indicator for those who believe?"

"Yup." Jack's sudden stop caused Rapunzel to bump into him. He looked back and picked her up by the waist before flying up to the balcony that held the meeting place. It was certainly homey with its dark wooden beams, fireplace at the end and the banners that hung decoratively. He flies over to the windows and the clear glass revealed the frozen tundra outside, it's blue colour contrasting greatly against the colours from within. "This is where I like to think." He tells her, patting the empty seat beside him.

Before she accepts her invitation she notices a library to the side. "Oh I love books." She comments, drawing Jack's attention. "I actually work in a bookstore as my part time." She sits across from him, propping her two feet up on the ledge.

"As a part time?" He asks.

"Yup and then I like to pretend that I'm a university student but really I'm helping out at various shelters." She sticks out her tongue in a joking way.

"Oh? That'd be fun to see a working Punzie." The nickname caused Rapunzel to blush and pull her hair in front of her. The rest of the time was quiet as the two looked outside, seeing various villages of what she guesses was where the elves lived.

"Hey." Jack catches her attention. "Wanna see North's office? It's pretty cool." He jumps off and pats his knees.

"Are you sure? Are we allowed in there?" Rapunzel asks, following him slowly.

"Yeah. He takes me there sometimes just to talk." As he lead her there, he leaned his staff over his shoulders and jumped onto the railing while Rapunzel stayed on the ground. When they reached a certain area that looked over the workshop, Jack jumps off to open the large glass door. Like always, it was overwhelmed with toys and a Christmas tree. The only place that was clear was his desk because the naughty and nice listing had been finish until the 1st week of new years where Santa would have to start working all over again.

"Wow." Rapunzel whispers, stepping through the room slowly to not miss any detail. "So this is where Santa works." She grins and stays fixated on a specific corner that held an ice sculpture of finite details of North Pole.

"Yeah, Nick is an artist." He leans in from behind causing Rapunzel to jolt at the his presence.

"How does it not melt from the fireplace?" She points at the brick structure just beside the sculpture. Jack shrugs.

"Magic? I learned the trick from him but a lot of what he said was about believing and faith." Rapunzel continued to look through the room herself while Jack observed her every movement. The way her hands would fold behind her when she was observant, the way her head tilted when she was curious and the way she would tuck her hair behind her ear to get a better look. He was so observant that it caught him off guard when she stared back at him, causing him to jolt and mask what just happened by coughing into a closed fist. "The office is usually better when Saint Nick is inside cause he does these cool magic tricks and makes things fly. Anyways, wanna see my room?"

"Sure." She says stepping out the office for him to follow and close the door.

"It's up there." He points near the skyline and takes her by the waist to fly upward. Rapunzel should feel used to his hand around her waist but a small part of her still felt uncomfortable in that a man was touching her there – a man who was not her husband. But that wasn't what bothered her the most; it was that she enjoyed his touch. Her eyes stayed focused on his face, seeing his sculpted jawline and determined look to get up there. She had to look away when he glanced at her.

When they had arrived on his floor, it was a clear balcony that did not have any way to get down other than to fly. He placed her down carefully before opening one of the two doors to reveal a large room with a tall ceiling and a large window to reveal the night sky. There was a single king sized bed in the middle, a desk, various empty bookshelves and a few doors which she assumed led to a bathroom, a closet or an entrance/exit. There was also a small living area in the middle but overall, the room hadn't had it's own personality yet.

"I recently moved here so it's a little empty. Gretchen's been trying to make it a little more homey though so that's always appreciated." He walks up to his bed and pulls out the small music box that Rapunzel had given him. He situates it on the side table beside a photo of the guardians and various elves. "Are you tired?" He asks her, glancing at his bed.

"I am actually." She manages to yawn.

"Okay, cause I'm also tired. I'll take the couch." He jumps into the air and lands on the couch.

"No Jack. It's your room, you should take the bed." She insist but he shakes his head and is already situating his staff on the coffee table.

"I'll see you in a few hours. I'm sure Gretchen will call us down." He places his hood on, rearranges the few pillows on the couch before lying down. "Bringing snow around is a pretty tiring job." He yawns, making himself comfortable.

"Here, let me get you a blanket at least." She says, hurrying to the bed to pull out a blanket from the many other layers. As her hands moved in a rhythmic pattern to collect the blanket, they began to bundle against her chest, covering most of her view. With shaky steps, she heads towards the couch and plops it onto Jack from behind before spreading it over his curled body. Quickly at first, she noticed that Jack's face had relaxed and his breathing had deepened into gentle beats. Her hand stopped over his shoulder and a finger moved up to collect a strand of his white hair to move it from his face. "Good night Jack." She whispered before moving to his large bed to rest up.

123

In a distance, darkness was the only thing that overwhelmed the scene. There was light occasionally from a few burrows from up above and candles but other than that, it was pitch black. In the middle of the cavern was a long hallway that led to a platform that carried a rock platform that was meant to act as a desk. A tall silhouette of the man shrivelled as he felt a tug against his heart. He lay down his book and pressed his hand against his chest – not that he had a heart but something felt extremely wrong. He felt weaker.

He stood up, gliding down the long path that connected his 'desk' from the actual structure of his ruined castle. Large doors opened as he approached them and a row of skeleton soldiers greeted him. Necromancy was something that he had been experimenting with yet had not yet perfected. He came into the centre of his foyer where a large metal sculpture of the world. The eerie sculpture had on it millions of lights but on specific speckle was shining far brighter than the rest. Pitch stretched himself to stare at the bright light on the North Pole. "Of course it's be there… but why would the guardians bring someone there?" He asked himself. He wouldn't have been surprised if it was the only one but the other bright speckle was found in USA, Pennsylvania. That signalled Jamie and Pitch had grown to ignore that one. Occasionally there would at least be a few others who'd speckle would shine bright, even to match Jamie's belief but for this one to drain Pitch, it meant that this child's depression had changed dramatically. It was bad for Pitch because he needed more power to feed into his growing practise of necromancy.

Pitch drew his long skeleton like figure and tapped on the single speckle. "Let's see who the North's decided to bring with them, shall we?" And soon after he drew his body into the darkness.

123

The sun was blinding to the point where it took a while for Rapunzel to register where she was. Her hand went up to her forehead and not before long; she realized she was in the familiar forests of Corona. She sat up and looked around her. There was a blanket stretched out, a few books scattered around and a food basket. "What am I doing…?" She could not finish her sentence before a very familiar figure broke from the forest in quick haste. His broad shoulders were enough to indicate that it was her husband.

"Rapunzel!" He greeted, laying down beside her in quick pants.

"Eugene?" She whispered with disbelief. "I haven't dreamed of you since…" She raised her left hand to touch his face and saw the ring on her finger. Her eyes began to burn with tears with a mix of sadness and happiness.

"What's wrong dear?" He asks, looking into her eyes and leaned in for a kiss but just as they were to meet, a large squad of squeals irrupted from the forest.

"Ew stop right there!" A small voice squeaked. A small boy pulled out a wooden sword from his belt and pointed it at the two affectionate people.

"Felix?" Rapunzel whispered, staring at her only son (for now).

"You can't kiss mommy until we give her the present." Agnes, her eldest daughter said with both hands behind her back and their youngest daughter Phoebe quickly nodded in agreement.

"Wait, if Phoebe is this old doesn't that mean…" Rapunzel looked down at her swollen stomach and realized that it was exactly that – she was pregnant with Demetri and Claira, the two twins. She looked back up with tearful eyes at her family but outside of this treasured memory captured by this dream was Pitch, standing tall over her with slight disappointment.

He clicked his mouth a few times before scowling permanently. He conjured forth the golden sand that allowed for her dreams and poked his finger in it which immediately caused it to blacken. He watched the woman pathetically knit her eyes in concern as her dream began to form into something she hadn't wished for. Her lips began to quiver with fear as she failed to call out for their names. "Rapunzel is it?" He asked, pacing around her. He looked at the door and noticed shadows being cast from the light that came from the outside. The familiar voices caused him to retreat into the dark shadow. He had to leave now if he wanted to get out and it had to be soon because if he stayed too long, everyone would notice his presence whether it was weakened. His body stretched onto the ceiling and he disappeared before the other guardians kicked the doors opened. Well, Aster kicked the doors opened, Tooth smiled uncomfortably while Sandman ran a hand over his face.

The sudden ricochet caused both Jack and Rapunzel to wake up. "You guys!" Jack groaned, sitting up and ran a hand across his face. "You could have knocked at least."

"Not a chance mate." Aster snickered and sat down on the other couch as he kicked his feet up on the table. "Nice room you got here. Looks like Gretchen and Nick got themselves a new pet."

"Haha very funny. Get your dirty paws off my table." Jack says, taking his staff and uses it to swipe off the bunny's feet.

"Ah, you wanna start now?" Aster stood and pressed his head against Jacks forehead until Toothania coughed loudly.

"It looks like we've met a guest here." She says loudly, catching both their attention. The blonde female stood from the bed and greeted them all with a warm hello. "I'm Rapunzel." She tells them.

"Ah? Jack's got himself a lady friend?" Aster whispers to Jack and slightly elbows him. He leaves the blushing Jack to himself and joins Toothiana's side.

"I'm E. Aster Bunnymund but you can just call me Aster."

"Hi, nice to meet you! It's so good to see other females around here. I'm Toothiana and over here is Sandman." The short yellow collection of golden dust snickered with happiness as he waved hello. Each movement he made sounded like bells.

"Well we came up to tell you that the big man had woken up and is ready for the feast." Aster tells her.

"Thanks." Jack says, joining the circle of friends. "Let's head down there now." He takes Rapunzel by the waist and flies her away, getting a head start to the 'race'.

"No fair!" Tooth exclaims with a laugh before dashing off behind. Sandman excitedly jumps on a cloud of dust and places on his goggles before following also.

"Geez, anyone here ever try to race a bunny before?" Aster asks before taping on the floor for a hole and jumped in.

123

Jack bursts into the dining room with Tooth and Sandy coming just a few seconds after. "Looks like we're first." He tells Rapunzel as he places her down.

"Not exactly mate. Have ya gone blind?" They looked at the bunny who was already seated beside Nicholas who remained standing.

"Welcome friends! Come sit, everyone." He signals forth the others and everyone sits accordingly. "It looks like we have a new guest here. I'm Nicolas North and I've heard you met my beautiful wife Gretchen?" He asks, placing a strong hand on his wife's shoulder who was giggling from her husbands announcement. Rapunzel nodded and was guided to the seat beside Sandy's so she'd be in between him and Jack across from Gretchen, Aster and Tooth. Jack was right, Saint Nick looked completely different from the jolly American side she heard of but his thick accent and tattoos made her curious what exactly made him Santa. "Well fair lady, what is your name?" Nicholas asks and insists they all sit with a hand gesture.

"Rapunzel." She replies and makes herself comfortable on the seat. It was Jack who pushed in her chair for her, which she hadn't expected.

"Well Rapunzel. Welcome to the North Pole. I hope you enjoy your stay here." He sits down and notions the elves and yeti's to come in with the millions of plates. The feast has begun.

123

"I had such a wonderful time." Rapunzel tells Jack now that they are back in her apartment. They were still close, his hands around her waist and her arms pressed against his chest.

"Me too. I hope you come visit often." He tells her and hands her a snow globe.

"Wow, Jack." She takes it carefully in her hands. He smiles and raises one hand, palms up. Suddenly with a burst of energy, Rapunzel began to emit a certain glow. White and blue dust escaped her body and flew into Jack's open palm. When she had stopped glowing, she felt heavier as her own two feet situated on the ground. "So I could have flied the entire night?" She asks, looking up at Jack who shrugged and made the dust disappear.

"Yeah but I didn't want you slowing me down so teaming up would have been better." He teased. The two made eye contact after their moment of laughter and then silence. They weren't sure with what to do until Rapunzel leaned in to kiss his cheek.

"Thanks again Jack." She tells him and this time he doesn't melt through the ground.

"I'd like to see you again if that's alright."

"Yes." She says quickly. "I'd like that."

"Great. I'll be back, I just need to do some things." He tells her, stepping away from her slowly as if he was frightened she'd disappear from his sight. But eventually he turned towards the window and flew out. Rapunzel sighed deeply, taking the snow globe and stepped into her room. She laid it beside the snowflake bottle before heading to bed. She'd need to grab the remaining hours of sleep before her worked started for Boxing Day. An invention she still has yet to fathom. She lay down on her bed, tucked herself in and closed her eyes. She was afraid that her dreams would turn into nightmares again but she'd have to endure so she'd be functioning by the morning. She placed both hands on her chest and knitted her eyebrows in concern as her feelings began to develop for Jack. She still loved her late husband, she knew that but what was it that she felt for Jack? Could it be? She was in love?

Once she was in deep sleep, a small black dusted creature stepped out of the shadow and floated on top of her. He conjured forth the golden dust from her sleep and just as he was about to touch it, a strong gust of wind and shock of cold knocked the black dusted creature into a million pieces. Jack swung into view and examined the familiar dark dust. "Pitch…" He whispered with a frown. He'd have to report this back to the guardians but he didn't want Rapunzel to be alone. "Darn," He whispered. "It'll just be a minute." He promised himself before taking a snow globe and threw it, taking him back to the North Pole.

123

Pitch Black was walking down the brick tiled city of Corona Germany on his way to the castle. Suddenly a small dust creature appeared from his side, whispering into his ear. "I told you all to be careful." He knitted his brows. "If you alert the Guardians, it could be game over for us." With anger, he raises his hand to conjure more small creatures made out of nightmare dust. "Now go and stay in the shadows for now. I shall tell you when it is time to strike." And from a distance, no one could see the tall man glide into the castle that Rapunzel had grown into and no one could see the tiny creatures flying back to New York to prey on Rapunzel.

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Merry CHRISTmas and have a Happy New Year everyone! Christmas is about celebrating God's greatest gift: Jesus. Who came down into a messy world to take all our sin so that we could have a restoration with God who desires relationship with us! This happiness that you get from Christmas is temporary but once you're in relationship with Jesus, you can always experience the full beauty of God. 3


	3. Slip Through My Fingers

Mending the Heart

Chapter Three: Slip Through My Fingers

Rapunzel's eyes flutter to an open from her alarm clock. She sat up, rubbed her eyes clean before touching the button to turn it off. Just like every morning, her body headed towards her washroom to clean up with a shower, brushed her teeth and hair then to the kitchen to eat something. But she still felt full from last night's feast and decided against it. She went back to her bedroom to get changed. When she finished buttoning her pants and when her head poked out her sweater, her eye caught onto a snowflake encased in a bottle. And right beside that one was a snow globe. "Whoa," That immediately woke her up as the memories from last night flooded into her head. As she approached her drawer, she pulled her hair from her sweater and tied it up. Carefully, she raised the bottle to examine it and the name of her courter escaped her lips. "Jack…" She whispered.

"Yes," The unrecognized voice that echoed in the room caused Rapunzel to freeze. "sweet Jack. It looks like he failed to come for you." His presence began to grow larger as he drew near to the blonde. In which Rapunzel noticed his inhuman like characteristics in the reflection of the bottle. At first his face was a blur until it clearly formed, it was then that Rapunzel's shoulders rose and she dropped the bottle.

"Who are you?" She asked, spinning around to face the pale skinned man. She slowly began to step back from him and cowered at his growing height.

"You'll find out eventually." He said, flashing an excited grin. Soon the small of her back bumped into the drawer signalling that she has reached her end. She looked at her bedroom door and sprinted for it but a long tentacle of black dust stretched out faster than her run and closed it shut.

The loud slam of the door awakened the yeti that Jack sent for on watch duty. Immediately, the blue large creature jumped up and darted for the door that was once opened. Large closed fists began to knock on the door, distracting Pitch from continuing to terrorize Rapunzel. "Tch, I should have taken note that Jack would send someone…" Pitch clicked his tongue and watch helplessly as the Yeti broke through the door. For a split second, the creature took in the scene that lay before him: Rapunzel helplessly on the ground now looking at him with hope and Pitch towering over her. With one swooping motion of his arm, a large dust pillar swept across the room to hit the yeti but the creature successfully dodged and continued on his quest to reach Rapunzel. Yet Pitch also did not give up so easily as he began madly swinging dark clusters towards the yeti as fast as his it could travel.

"Feisty one aren't you?" He frowned as the yeti dodged yet another pillar of dust and now had Rapunzel under his arm. At that moment, the yeti caught the sight of the magical snow globe sitting perfectly still on top of Rapunzel's drawer. "Where do you plan on going?" Pitch asked as he commanded all his dust to create a wall between the dresser and the yeti.

It's a good thing I came here myself. You know, I figured after one of my little creatures messed up. The guardians would be notified. I certainly couldn't allow that, could I?" He let out a maniacal laugh to express his joy of her growing fear as the shimmering black dust circled around them; all she could do was cling onto the yeti who now repositioned so she was hidden within the wide frame of the yeti.

"Why are you doing this?!" Rapunzel cried out, desperate for an answer as she felt the remaining happiness being ripped out of her.

"Because you're weakening me!" He scolded her in frustration. "Your depression and anguish has gotten me so very far. I feel quite betrayed that you'd go off and be happy." He closed his hand in a fist as the dust almost capsuled them.

"You're a monster!" She cried out.

"Oh darling." Pitch shook his head. "I'm more than a just a monster. I'm practically the devil himself." He smirked before letting out a long laugh that echoed in the darkness that fully surrounded Rapunzel and the yeti. It captured them entirely and knocking her and the yeti into a deep coma of nightmares.

"Jack…" Was the last thing she whispered as she clung onto her wedding rings.

123

"Welcome, if there's anything specific you're looking for… I'm the girl you ought to talk to!" Meredith said as a large group of teens entered into the store. She was rearranging a few shelves as she restocked while some other co-workers focused on cashier. Every time the door opened, Meredith peeked from the shelf and anxiously hoped that Rapunzel would enter through it. It was very unlikely for her to be late, even if she lacked sleep. The redhead walked back into the teen isle and lay the box of books down. Swiftly pulling a box cutter from her pocket, she unconsciously twirled it around her fingers as she knelt to rip it open. Inside revealed the best selling teen books and formatted them on the bookshelves.

Just as she began stacking, someone whizzed by her. She ignore the first few times, figuring it was a kid running around – as it usually was busy on boxing day; but soon her patience wore thin and in one swift movement, she spun around and grabbed on the person's hood. "Hey slow down will you?" The 'customer' turned around and both their mouths opened wide. "Jack?"

"Meredith?!" She let go of his sweater and brushed her frozen hand against her pants. "What are you doing here?" He asks.

"What? I should be asking you that?! I'm working." She tells him plainly. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"I'm looking for Rapunzel. She says she works here? I figured she'd be here by now so I came here instead of her apartment."

"Wait." Meredith said, raising a finger to point at him. "You're the Jack she was talking about?!"

"She talked about me?" Jack raised a curious brow. "Well, I hope she said good things." He blushed, running a hand under his nose and paced a little.

"Jack, get yourself together." Meredith rolled her eyes. Suddenly a customer came into view and stared oddly at Meredith who – from a normal humans eye, looked to be talking to herself. The redhead just smiled and raised the book she was carrying. "I was reading out loud." She told the customer who shrugged and walked away. "Geez," She whispered and looked at Jack. "You always seem to embarrass me."

"If you're here, doesn't that mean Hiccup and Astrid is also around?" he asks, landing on his feet. "Still got a thing for Hiccup huh? Out of all people, he's taken."

"Shut up!" The furious blushing woman slammed the thick hard cover of _Twilight _against his chest, which managed to knock some air out of him. "Look, I'm not gonna make a move on him okay?"

"I get it, I get it. He comforted you when your lover died. You're best friends. Blah blah blah. Good thing you found me by then so you'd have me to unbottle everything to." He snickered. "Imagine if you unbottled that to his wife."

"Stop, we were talking about Rapunzel."

"Right." He straightened up. "You know, I find it way more than coincidental that you know Rapunzel and that you're working the same job. Because I know it's very unlikely for you to be working unless you're under cover. Why are you really here Mer?"

"We're here for money…" She started off which wasn't a complete lie but when Jack wouldn't stop giving her a stare, she sighed and continued on. "And to recruit Rapunzel." She tells him with a sigh. "She's immortal like us. She might as well aid us in protecting magic and creatures. Also, she's collected very valuable contacts throughout her time."

"Really? That's why you want her?"

"Well, why do you want her?" Meredith poked a finger at him.

"It's cause I'm a guardian and we're suppose to protect all those who believe in us." He tells her plainly as his eyes wander up to stare at the ceiling.

"Oh really? Part of me has a hard time believing that's the only reason."

"Okay, so I've grown to like her. What's wrong with that?" Jack says, running a hand down his hair. "It's not as bad as yours. You sound like you just wanna make a tool out of her."

"It's a job. Deal with it and you know it's much more than that." Meredith rolled her eyes as her frown deepened. "It can be awfully lonely thinking you're the only one immortal. She needs immortal friends and_ you_ could have been part of it…but you were too into your emo phase." She rolled her eyes once more but this time it was accompanied with a smile, which only brightened more as she saw Jack's very sincere pout. "Looks like the Guardians were the ones who were able to knock some sense into you." She laughed and lightly punched his arm.

"Hey…" Jack started the conversation once he recovered from the quick laugh. "I technically do have the 'much more' part, after all, we _are_ friends." He winked at her. "Now with that whole emo phase… I still blame MiM for it..." He sighs, shaking his head to get the supposed Moon Man out of his head and back to his thoughts of the Rapunzel. "Are you sure it's unusual for Rapunzel to be late?" The corner of his mouth tilted downwards.

"Yes." She reassured him. "Why don't you go check her apartment out?"

"I can, haha, I'll probably have to explain earlier than I'd like to why I sent Wilfred to watch her." He smiled softly as he recalled the yeti. Meredith simply raised her eyebrow at the sentence and shrugged it off.

"I'll call Hiccup and Astrid to meet you there." Already halfway through her sentence she was dialling their two close friends and Jack took that as a signal to go forth.

When he arrived at her apartment, it was uncomfortably silent except for the ticking clock. "Wilfred?" He asked out loud just in case Rapunzel _was _late and was already on her way out but the evidence around him proved the opposite. Her jacket was still untouched as it hung from her coat hanger and her boots were settled perfectly against the door. It'd be impossible for her to be gone. At the site of this, his heart immediately sunk and he ran his hand through his hair to collect his thoughts of what to do next… Wilfred wouldn't have traveled back to the North if Rapunzel wasn't safely at work and Rapunzel couldn't have left her apartment. Suddenly the doorknob rattled, pulling Jack out of his thoughts and made him jump into stance that said he was ready to fight as he pointed his staff in that direction. His grip tightened against the staff as his fingers glowed with frost, preparing for a beam of cold until the door opened to reveal Hiccup and company. He lowered his staff as he approached his long time friends.

"Whoa Jack. It's nice to see you again." Hiccup tells him with a smile.

"I didn't expect the Jack she was talking about to be you. I kinda called you lame." Astrid informed him with a laugh. "Sorry about that."

"Yeah, it's okay. Jack does sound ordinary." He greeted them with quick hugs. "I'd like to stay here and catch up but…" He didn't even have to finish his sentence for the two to understand. Hiccup simply conveyed that understanding by placing a reassured hand on his shoulder and a nod before they split ways to start their investigation. As Hiccup and company looked around her main area, Jack was intrigued by her bedroom door as it looked like it had been battered. This brought a sinking feeling down his heart and into the pit of his stomach. "Hiccup… Astrid." He called them out as he noticed the overturned furniture and his shattered present on the floor (though the snowflake itself was still intact).

Jack leaned down and examined his broken present while Hiccup, Astrid and their two dragons in the shape of two cats searched around the room. When he leaned down to pick it up, his fingertips brushed against the very dusty carpet. He ignored the bottle and pressed his hand against the carpet and examined his hand that was now sprinkled with black dust. "Pitch." He whispered disgustingly. "Damn," He cursed. "I didn't think he'd personally come to get her… otherwise, it isn't a surprise why Wilfred couldn't handle him." He stood up immediately. "Damn it." He repeated, this time with more anger and passion. "I should have been the one to protect her myself!" He slammed his staff down and looked around the room to overturn something, whether a picture frame or a chair however, Hiccup again called out to him.

"Jack, you can't blame yourself. Nobody would expect Pitch to play such a risky move, specially at his weakest state thus far." It was true. Since Pitch's last fight with the guardians, he was a small disposable size and now a days, it was getting harder to collect fear now that children were getting more desensitized. So it would have been incredibly stupid of Pitch to come and expect to fight Jack and win.

"He got her. Why her?" He catches the attention of everyone in the room. "I'm going to the North Pole to report this. I don't know if you guys wanna meet up there and think up a plan." He tosses them the snow globe found on Rapunzel's dresser. "You know what to do. I'll be up North gathering the guardians. I'll meet you there." And not before long, he threw his own globe and entered into the portal.

123

He burst into the North's bedroom despite the yetis discouraged him to. The North's awoke from the loud slam of the doors opening and sat up. "Jack what's wrong dear?" Gretchen asked with a yawn. Nicholas had his eyes still closed and when he took a peek to see that it was Jack, the old man lay back down.

"I'll be there soon." The half asleep Nicholas mumbled. "Just a few more… hours." He whispered before his loud snoring continued on.

"It's Rapunzel!" Jack exclaims, now hovering over their bed. Gretchen now had her eyes open and had the attention of Jack.

"Ahh your girlfriend can wait a few hours…" Nicholas whispered. Out of frustration Jack shouted:

"No she can't!" and with that combined with Gretchen coaxing her husband to rise, Nicholas's eyelids shot up and he sat up.

"What is it you brat?" Nicholas sucked his teeth in disapproval. Usually, he'd be more than willing to listen to Jack but everyone knew that when Nicholas was on his recovery sleep after a whole day of no sleep – he is to not be disturbed.

"It's Pitch!" Jack said, now the power in his voice had disappeared. "I don't know where he took Rapunzel." He slowly began to descend on their bed and collapsed into Gretchen's comforting arms.

"Shh now dear." She reassured him. "We'll find her, I assure you."

Nicholas paused and watched his wife and friend… (though his wife insisted that the two ought to be like father and son), it still felt weird to Nick but he had grown to love Jack as his own. Seeing Jack this way, even though Nicholas was tired, he sighed and kicked himself off his bed, ready to grab his clothes. "Well?" Nick says, crossing his arms. His wife and Jack both looked up. "What are you waiting for? Go call the other guardians! We got a villain to stop and a lady that needs some saving." He grinned.

Immediately Jack's face brightened and he flew out of the room.

123

Jack had been pacing back and forth, back and forth some more until Aster stepped in. He stopped for a moment, glanced at him and continued his pacing. This time, when Toothiana and Sandman entered, he didn't even stop to look at them, he just glanced their way in the middle of his endless walking. In the next moment, a portal ripped through and Hiccup, Astrid and their two dragons enter, all equipped for battle. "Where's Meredith?" He asks, noticing that the familiar redhead isn't there.

"She had to conjure up a clone of herself to take over her shift then head back to her apartment to get ready." Hiccup informs him.

"How will she get here?" Jack asks, his pace quickens.

"She's got magic. Relax, she's been practising for decades now." Hiccup says with a crooked smile. The next to arrive was the Norths.

"Are we waiting for Mer?" Jack asks, his blue eyes desperate for an answer.

"No, we don't have to." Astrid tells him.

"Alright. Well thanks for gathering." Jack quickly introduces without stopping his walk. It was only when Hiccup approached him and placed two heavy hands on his friend's shoulders did Jack stop pacing. "Oh right." Jack grins sheepishly before acknowledging the two different groups but both are close friends. "Thanks for gathering…Rapunzel had been taken by Pitch. I had my assumptions when one of them had tried to turn her dreams into nightmares. I had sent Wilfred to keep watch of her the entire night while I went to run different errands around town for the other believers…However, after I decided to visit the place she worked in, I bumped into Mer and realized that Rapunzel wasn't there. So I quickly went to investigate her apartment and both of them were missing. I just hadn't thought he would attack so soon and personally, I'm unsure why he attacked Rapunzel specifically." He clicked his tongue and his bad habit of biting his thumbnail whenever he was nervous resurfaced. Gretchen was far too concerned for Rapunzel to scold Jack as she normally would have.

"He probably chose to attack her cause she's gotten close to you." Aster comments.

"I don't know if that's the case…" Gretchen intercedes. "Jamie had always been the one to visit us from time to time and it can be noted that Jack and Jamie are closer. Yet Pitch choses to stay away from Jamie."

"It could be different though." Aster says. "This time, Jackie Boy actually likes likes the girl…" He smirks causing Jack to blush furiously. "and we all know what feelings can do to a man." At that instance, Nicholas and Gretchen both share a wide grin and Astrid and Hiccup stare into each other's eyes with a soft smile. Toothania looks down at the ground in thoughtful sorrow while Sandman folds his hands close to his head as man and woman dance around his head with hearts flying around.

"I don't like her that way." Jack mumbles. After all, it has only been a few days.

"But soon you will." From far off, Meredith's voice echo's and eventually, her figure comes into view and as expected, her trusted bow is latched onto her back. "Sorry I'm late everyone, Boxing Day is _always_ busy in America." She smiles. "So what did I miss?"

"Nothing so far Redhead." Aster says.

"We were just trying to figure out why Pitch took her." Astrid informs her.

"Ah. I see." Meredith says, closing the gap between the two groups with her presence. "So we didn't discuss where she could be?"

"Unfortunately no, we're trying to get to that." Hiccup answers her question and she accept it with a nod.

"Is there anyway that Wilfred could contact us?" Gretchen asks out loud but stares at her husband.

"There's no chance unless he brought a device and even if he did, I'm sure Pitch would have been smart enough to take everything from him." Nicholas answers his wife with a frown.

"Well, let's look at this from an objective point of view." Meredith offers. "Ignore Jack form this equation. We all know that it would be risky for Pitch to come anywhere near you all because of his current state of weakness. So let's limit this within the window of Rapunzel. Why Rapunzel? What's so special about her?" She asks, now pacing around with a hand under her chin as she thought.

"She's was a princess." Toothania says out loud.

"She's rich." Aster throws in.

"She's got powerful connections." Hiccup says and on and on the suggestions went and soon they got ridiculously absurd that it was starting to frustrate both Jack and Meredith. Just as Meredith was about to tell everyone to be quiet from their loud thoughts, there was a loud bell from Sandman who discovered something. While everyone was busy spewing out answers, he was quick to think. Everyone closed their mouths and the round glittering man jumped in the middle of the circle and his eyes glossed with excitement. Sandy began to act it out as his golden sand danced around him to create a scene and Aster began to translate for everyone.

"Pitch derives his powers off of fear, nightmare and negativity…" Aster starts off as Sandman makes an image of Pitch growing bigger as the silhouette of people under Pitch's feet began to tremble and become sad. Then suddenly Sandman switched the silhouette of those people to Rapunzel and there was a shared gasp once her face came into view. Aster closed his mouth as he allowed Sandman to continue on his own. The tiny man then conjured up a small version of Jack who flew into sad Rapunzel's life and the two danced golden figures danced and flew around the guardians and friends. All eyes glossed with happiness as they watched the tiny golden figures of Jack and Rapunzel being genuinely happy, and as to break that image. Sandman orchestrated his version of Pitch to dance around the two and the audience watched as Pitch got smaller and smaller as Rapunzel became more happy.

"You're a genius…" Both Jack and Aster whispered to Sandman who cheekily smiled.

"It makes sense…" Astrid whispers. "Rapunzel has been battling depression for decades…"

"She often lived in fear and in nightmares…" Meredith added quietly as well.

"And even though she'd try suicide. The flower would never let her." Jack recalled their first chat. "Rapunzel was one of his major sources of power!" He turns to his friends and family. Everyone nods and shares a smile of excitement as they began to unravel the mystery that lay before them. "Okay, so we know why he took her… now where did he take her?" Jacks asks, turns around to face everyone.

"His hide out?" Meredith suggests with a shrug.

"It's always changing depending where he is." Toothania informs her.

"Ah, I see." She clicked her tongue in disapproval.

"Well we established that Pitch took her for power." Astrid said. "And he gets power when she's in a state of depression…. and so where would he take her to keep her in that state of depression?" There was silence as they all thought and then it hit Jack.

"The place that once was her source of happiness soon became her source of fear quickly after everyone she loved died." And Toothania was the first to agree, after all, she knew the memories of all the children's teeth she had taken. "They're headed for Corona… in Germany." And then as Jack faced his company, he knew that they all shared the same thought: It was time to go and fight.

123

With a few blinks of the eye, Rapunzel's eyes fluttered to an open and at first she was unsure of where she was but quickly she let out a yelp as she realized where. She was in her old room… in the tower. She jumped out of bed and quickly ran outside, only to see a ghost waiting silently by the window. "It can't be." Rapunzel whispered. "This is all just a dream." The ghost turned around to face Rapunzel and her dull eyes bore holes into Rapunzel that locked her in trembling fear.

"Oh Rapunzel dear." The high-pitched voice called out. "This is more than just a dream… this is a nightmare." The familiar figure rose from her seat. "This is the time when your lovely Flynn comes about to save you." She smiles and snaps her finger and immediately Rapunzel was in chains. "Now why don't we play it out and see what happens when he stays in the tower and dies? Or survive and watch him fall in love again? Or to torture him before your eyes? Why not all?" She laughed and from her hands poured out an ever-flowing fountain of black dust. Out of the realm of her dream, Pitch was further conspiring his plan as he loomed over a small box that held the remnants of Mother Gothel's ashes. He took the box and shook the contents out and rubbed a bit of it on his finger. Slowly, he began to conjure dust from his palm and laced it with the ashes while murmuring a spell under his breath.

Depending on how long ago Gothel lived played a large roll in how long he'd had to chant for… as he relaxed to get comfortable, his concentration was broken by the uncomfortable shrieks of Rapunzel. The dust that hovered over the table sunk immediately as Pitch turned to face the still sleeping girl. He was surprised how loud she could squeal and without a doubt, it awoke the yet. The creature was quick to his feet but Pitch threw the creature a ball of black dust and immediately, it had knocked him back into it's nightmares. Once Pitch got a better view of the sleeping girl who lay on a rock slab and held down by his black dust, he examined what seemed to be leaking from her body – it was black dust.

She began to produce power for him like a fountain that would not stop and he was overwhelmed with excitement. He hadn't realized that this could be done before other than the occasional he would see whenever he would visit the asylums… but to see a "normal" and sane girl produce this much power got him giddy with joy… Those who had leaked and poured out dust much like hers would quickly die from the pain. She was different… As her skin began to blot with burst blood cells from the excessive stress, it also began to glow as it tried to keep her alive. She continued to squirm and scream from the agony and despite her body wanting to wake up, Pitch's spell only got stronger the more she feared. His snarky grin grew… perhaps Rapunzel was a lot more special that he thought. She was his ultimate and intimate source of power, she was perfect in the way that she had been collecting the right amount of nightmares to linger on… not just from the death of her family but from the wars and countless atrocities she has faced. She was indeed perfect for Pitch. He wriggled in excitement and began to hush her silently as she violently thrashed around and shouted in pain. "Here, let me turn those shouts into gentle quivers instead." He whispered, blowing more dust into her face, locking her deeper and deeper into sleep. Her mouth closed.

"Now where was I?" He giggled as he turned back to the ashes that originally caused Rapunzel's sadness.

123

Shortly after their meeting, they arrived at Corona within minutes all thanks to magic. Corona was still reminiscent of its ancient architect. All that had changed so far was that there were small cars, motorcycles and telephone booths lines along the tight cobblestone roads. And when you stared up, the night sky was slightly blocked with telephone wires, antennas and wire's for TV's and whatever else needed it.

Due to the 6 hours difference between New York and Germany, it was 3am and still dark outside. The streets were empty and quiet except for the occasional noises from the stray animals that filled the chilly night. Jack looked around from where they all stood which was the town square and against the wall was a mosaic of baby Rapunzel held by her parents which was now fading away thus being gated to persevere the ancient art. It was a miracle that Corona itself was not destroyed during the World Wars.

"Where should we start…" Hiccup asked, looking at a poster that promoted the grand tour of the Corona's Castle that was now an acting museum.

"I can take them to Rapunzel's old tower." Toothania says.

"Then we'll figure out a way to get into the castle." Hiccup tells him.

"Are you guy sure?" Toothania asks in concern. "Now a days, human are very adamant about security and I hear of these magic like device that can capture moment called a video… and loud alarm systems."

"Don't worry about us." Astrid smiled. "We also have magic on our side and thanks to long life, Hiccup here managed to teach himself technology and all that jazz. Instead we're quite curious as to how you'd find this tower that is still claimed only to be a legend." Astrid smirked at the only lady in their group.

"I figured since we're dealing with Rapunzel, I'd review the memories of all people that were significant to her." From her small pouch she pulled out golden cylinders that carefully encased specific people's baby teeth. Once the two groups understood the other and had nothing else to say, the two factions split and went their own way.

123

Meredith, Hiccup, Astrid and their two dragons (currently in the form of cats) arrived within the vicinity of the castle. They all dispersed into smaller groups to not seem suspicious to the few guards roaming outside the castle which was now gated rather than before where it was only guarded by its strong walls and doors. Their acts all seemed to work enough to cause the guard to dismiss them. Astrid and Hiccup both were two young hidden lovers in the middle of the night, Meredith was someone who enjoyed to wander the streets listening to music as she explored her thoughts while the two dragons easily blended into the acts of being strays wandering their usual town. While Hiccup's back was faced to the guard as he wrapped his hands over Astrid, he was staring at his smart phone and began to hack into the system of the castle to gather information of the locations of the cameras and to temporary disable the camera that guarded watched the front.

When the guard passed by, it was a sign for the team to gather as both Toothless and Stormfly transformed into their original, brilliant forms and Hiccup jumped on his long time pal while the girls both jumped on Stormfly and flew onto the roofs of the castle to find some sort of entrance and it didn't take long for them to find one. The humans jumped in through the open window and once they were in, Stormfly and Toothless swooped in and midway through, transformed back into cats and their paws safely reached the marbled floor.

It was dark in the room but they could sense it was large and after their eyes adjusted, they could see that it was the bathroom – exactly that. The center of attention in this large area was a bathtub while decorated with embroidered curtains and various shelves with exquisite glass bottles that once held perfumes and sorts for the bath but now remain empty.

"Where would we start?" Astrid whispers to no one in particular.

"Well, since this is such a big place. Asking for help wouldn't be a crime." Meredith smirks as she raises her hand to summon a single wisp. Eventually, the blue gas like creatures multiply and from there, they spread out.

123

"This should be the place…" Toothania pouted, reviewing the memories of Eugene and Rapunzel. She even pulled out their children's teeth to triple confirm the entrance to the tower, however, they could not find the large rock with the supposed hole in it.

"Okay Tooth, we all trust you here. I'm sure it is the right place." Aster tells her walking towards a thick layer of vines. "You're telling me this should be the entrance?" The fairy nods at his question. "Good then." From his quiver, he pulls out his boomerang and begins to swing at the vines. It was then that Nicholas joined in, seeing as he was the one with an actual weapon. Jack felt helpless as he watched the two continue to do all the action, at this time, he felt it wouldn't be a smart idea to freeze an entire cluster of greenery without being certain for sure that the tower stood there and for certain, it would draw the attention of Pitch if he surly was near the tower.

When finally after what seemed like hours (only to the anxious Jack), they had cut through the hole and lo and behold, under the bright moon, there the tower was… well half of it anyways, the other half had fallen right beside it while a decent chunk was in the river. "This must have been beautiful…" Jack whispered.

"It was." Jack attention moved to Toothania when she placed a hand on his shoulder. She smiled at him softly before flying off to the tower to inspect before the boys.

"How exactly are we going to find Pitch from all this rubble?" Nicholas whispered as he picked up a stone and threw it back in the pile. He looked up around him and noticed that Jack had gone off to check the fallen bedroom of what was once owned by Rapunzel. The boy flew into the window and raised his staff to make it glow in order to navigate the area. Despite the walls now being the floor; it was easy for him to picture how it would have looked like before the tower had fallen. And although the furniture was filled with dust and moss, Jack could see the walls lined with paint and portraits. One specific painting above the fireplace caught his eye as he pulled the curtain back to reveal the depiction of the floating lanterns and a small portrait of Rapunzel sitting on the tree staring at it.

But Jack didn't stay alone for long, soon Sandy's golden sand illuminated the entire room and the ruckus from his teammates, drew his attention. "For 18 years she was stuck up here and all she ever wanted to do was explore the world… and she has… all alone for the rest of her life." Toothania says loud enough for everyone to catch and as if the mood wasn't bad enough, they all shared a moment of silence.

123

"Are you sure this is right?" Astrid asks as they were now all jogging to follow one specific wisp who guided them through the hallways.

"Yes and they're telling me that something isn't right with the their world." Meredith responds back and eventually the wisp leads them into an area that Hiccup announced was king's office. But before they could step any further, Meredith stops them with a single hand gesture and they all jump back and press themselves against the wall. This room had a varied amount of security camera's and two guards were talking right in front of the door since inside, it carried the personal journals, plans, blueprints and other literature from the royal family all stored in that area.

Without anymore time to waste, Meredith singles one of the wisps to entice them and without much surprise, the glowing ethereal creature caught the eyes of the guards who were curious enough to follow it and cautious to the idea of a possible intruder. So they called out with a "Hey you, stop right there" uncertain of what it was they saw and tailed the wisp thus leaving the door unattended. Right at that moment, Hiccup had done what he usually did with the camera's and they all entered the office.

The wisp that was guiding them hurried to an area behind the desk and to one of the bookshelves. Astrid and Meredith ran past the desk and examined the bookshelf the wisp had traveled into. The two girls looked at each other and knew exactly what it was they needed to do. They carefully examined the shelf, looking for someway to open the trapdoor. Hiccup on the other hand was quite curious about the writings and managed to pull out a specific diary that claimed to belong to the Rapunzel's son: the next king after Eugene. Somehow, by luck, Hiccup didn't even have time to skim the pages when he noticed a button like device at the back of the shelf and it didn't take much time for him to press it. This caused the ground to shake subtly and caught the girls off guard as the entire bookshelf and the floor began to rotate. Quickly, Hiccup, Toothless and Stormfly joined the moving circle and soon enough they were on the other side of the wall. It was completely dark except for the glowing wisp that patiently waited for them.

Prepared as usual, Hiccup pulled out a flashlight from his pocket and pointed it at the dark area to reveal to the group that they were now in a tunnel. However, it was not big enough for the two cats to revert into their original forms making them feel uncomfortably vulnerable in the unknown. When they reached a certain point, the wisp began to make unintelligible noise only accustomed to Meredith's ears. "He's telling us to draw our weapons." She translates to the group that now have their eyes wide from the sudden information. The tension quickly rose as they all acted on the what they've just heard as they continued to descend.

123

"Pitch was here." Toothania announces what Sandman had been saying as the little guy holds up black dust that slowly turns into gold dust after he had touched it.

"But why?" Jack asks. "There's nothing here other than her stuff, I don't know why it'd be important to him."

"Maybe he wants to recreate this scene so he can make his nightmares more believable?" She suggests and the group remain silent as they accept her explanation. Despite it sounding cruel, she was most likely right, after all, Pitch was oddly keen for perfection as it fed to his pride.

"He's gotten much more cruel these past few years…they aren't the usual scary ponies but he's hitting deep physiological scars…" His hand balls into his fist as the unspeakable range begins to boil in him but he knew that it would be better to cool his head to perform adequately. "Is there nothing here underground?" Jack let's out a deep sigh and everyone looks at the bunny who simply shakes his head.

"I checked. Nada thing mate." The group remained silent, thinking of what it is they were hoping to find. "Hopefully the other group found something we hadn't." Aster said, ready to step out of the overturned room. When suddenly, a sound of chimes caught their attention and they looked at the center of the room where they'd expect Sandy to be calling out to them but rather, it was a wisp.

"Jack." It spoke but rather, it wasn't it that spoke but Meredith's voice echoed from the creature.

"Mer?" He responded, jumping in front of the wisp.

"Ah good, it took a while for the wisps to find you. Anyways, we found something you aren't going to like. Pitch is camping under the castle grounds by connecting his base to the underground passage ways." She informed them. "But the main thing is, he's gotten a hold of necromancy… Due to the catacombs below, he's raised up an army of hundreds, if not, at least a few thousand of dead soldier's underground… We're hidden so thankfully they can't see us but I'm afraid-" Immediately her voice was interrupted by a loud collection of screams and heavily rumbling. The guardians all looked at each other with dire concern before Jack focused his attention of the wisp.

"Meredith?" He shouted. "Mer, are you alright?!" After a few moments, a loud sigh of relief left the guardians mouths as they heard Meredith's voice.

"Yeah." She said with a struggle as she let out a groan. "Pitch's found us and caused our floor to collapse. Now we're in the middle of his army. You better come quick!" Then without much else, there were sounds of metal clashing against metal and a thunderous yelp with crackling fire. Then the sound cut off and the wisp remained silently floating before vanishing altogether.

"Necromancy?..." Nicholas pondered on. "That's completely dark magic."

"Who knew Pitch would… or even could dabble in something that requires a lot of power…" Aster mumbled.

"When you're desperate, you'll do anything in your power to get what you want." Nicholas adds. Just as Aster was about to respond, they were interrupted by Toothania's loud gasp.

"Mother Gothel died here." Toothania says, recalling the memories of Rapunzel and Eugene. She looks up at her teammates, expecting them to share the same shock but only Jack understood where she was getting at. In a fit of anxiety, she jumbles a cluster of words together to explain to the rest who Gothel was. "She was old the one who caged Rapunzel in this tower." She explains, causing the three to acknowledge audibly. "This is why Pitch was here. He was collecting her to bring her back to life!"

Then without any further need of explanation, Nicholas threw an orb on the floor and everyone jumped into the swarming orb of colour that took them in the castle. They weren't exactly sure where they were except they knew they were in a large expanse of marble floor, large windows and a numerous amount of chandeliers. It must have been the ballroom and luckily, despite there being security cameras, they didn't have to worry about being seen since these were adults they were dealing with.

So Aster patted his paw on the ground and jumped in along with everyone else. The ride was as smooth as a slide but sadly the landing wasn't as great. Aster jumped away immediately after he landed so that he wouldn't be under the pile of fallen bodies. Nicholas first hit the solid ground with a loud uhmp of his belly, followed by Jack, Sandman and Toothania. "Hey, this isn't the time to be resting around maggots." Aster quipped with a smirk. At first they all glared at him but quickly joined in laughter, thankful for the small relief in the tension filled day since Rapunzel's capture.

The guardians ran towards wherever they thought was best and luckily, they managed to catch on the sounds of war: metal against metal, grunts and shouts of casualty. It didn't take long for them to see the action going on below them as the platform began to open up into a vast space. Jack immediately raised his staff and shot frozen beams towards the enemies, which caught the attention of his enemies and friends who called out to him. The young boy flew down, followed by Sandman and Toothania while Nicholas and Aster began to fight against the dead soldiers who managed to get onto their level.

"Any sign of Rapunzel?" Jack asks the 3 as he raised his staff above his head in order to block a sword.

"Nothing so far unfortunately. We've been too entangled in the fight to focus on Rapunzel." Hiccup tells him and Jack sucks teeth at the news. The white haired male pushed the sword that was against his staff upwards before kicking his enemy and struck him with a powerful bolt of ice. "Despite us fighting against the soldiers, they only get stunned for a short moment before quickly regaining their form and fighting back." Despite Jack knowing and understanding the struggles of his friends, he couldn't help get upset at them – or the situation – or Pitch. He was just mad that Rapunzel wasn't safe and she was all he could think off.

"Damn, I hope you guys can handle the rest for now." Jack says as he flew up in the air. "I have to find her."

"Go." Toothania reaffirms. "We can handle them."

"Yes, thanks for making it as fast as you could." Hiccup responds. "Now go Jack." And Jack gave a firm nod: a sign of him saying thanks before he began to fly up further in search for Rapunzel.

123

There was a clear disturbance in the air as Pitch could hear the far echoes of his risen soldiers in action. Not only was the disturbance from that, but also Gothel was finally finished her transformation. Her curly hair was perfectly shiny, her skin was perfect without any blotches and her body was beautifully curvy. For a moment, Pitch was taken a back by how beautiful this supposed "witch" was that the fairy tales quipped about. But much like he had expected from his earlier necromancy, she started to disintegrate into her old, skeleton like form – with pale white skin, shrivelled skin and graying hair. He whispered his last words and the closed large eyes of Gothel opened to reveal uncomfortable glass-like eyes.

There was a few blinks and not before long, Gothel sat up immediately and looked around. She raised an eyebrow at Pitch. "Who are you? I'm pretty positive I'm suppose to be dead." She quipped, staring disgustingly at the wrinkles on her hands.

"I'm Pitch." He grins, clasping his fingers together. Gothel was much different from his other necromancy, instead, he enjoyed her rude and energetic attitude. It was like she had completely gone back to life rather than the solider who were clearly alive physically but lacked a soul.

"Pitch?" She scoffed. "What a ridiculous name, does it have something to do with the darkness? Pitch Black?" She rolled her eyes and looked around the very dim cave.

"It's kind of like that."

"Hmm… Why'd you bring me back to this world?" At that, Pitch circled her and stopped when he reached her other side.

"I wanted to give you a present." He tells her, motioning towards her right to reveal what used to be behind Pitch before he had moved: it was Rapunzel also lying down. Though she was different, her hair was long and blonde rather than short and brown. She looked unnaturally sick from the sweat and constant shivering as if she were experiencing a terrible fever and for whatever reason, there was dark grain following so quickly from her that at first, Gothel thought it was black liquid.

"My flower…" Gothel whispered. "I'm useless with my flower." She glances back at Pitch, this time with lost puppy eyes.

"Well, do as it pleases you. Have your way with her. She's given me much power and I figured we can team up..." He leaned down to show his sincere smile. "You've managed to maintain her for a long time and she's given me more power than I can imagine. If we can win against the guardians, we can live, as we've desired. So have your way with her. If you desire to peak in her dreams, you may do so and if you desire to be the master of her dreams, you may also do so. Just as long as she's pouring out dust." He smiles brightly. "Now, I ought to check outside with what all the ruckus is about. I really do hope it isn't the guardians." He rolls his eyes and begins to glide outside until Gothel called out to him.

"How am I suppose to do that?" She asks, causing him to raise an eyebrow. "How am I suppose to wake her or change her dreams?" She repeats but this time with further explanation.

"You're a villain. You can figure it out yourself." He rolls his eyes before continuing on his path towards the large double doors. And Gothel couldn't help but smirk and roll out a laugh.

"You're quite right about that dear." She grinned, looking over her shoulder to wink at him. Pitch stopped his tracks and looked at back at her and shared the same smile that all villains seemed to possess. Then he was gone with a trail of black dust following him and left Gothel all to herself. The old woman got off the cold slab thus dangling her legs over the side. At first it was odd to feel the black dust constantly rushing past and through her legs as if it had been rushing water. Gothel raised her feet from the sand and examined it to make sure that it did not stick to her skin and glad that it hadn't, she situated it down on the floor to make her way to her long lost flower.

At first she wasn't quite sure where to start so she examined Rapunzel by running a bony hand through her hair and grazed her finger by Rapunzel's forehead, down to her rosy cheek and chin. "Oh Rapunzel." She clicked her tongue in disapproval. "Look what he's done to you…" She caressed her "little" girl's cheek. "You gave him power… you made me stay young…" She whispered in singsong. "But then again, maybe you can blame your parents for stealing what belonged to me." Gothel grabbed the frail girls wrist and gripped it tightly, gladly digging her nails in and enjoyed as the unconscious one squired from the pain and heard her screams turn into silent mumbles. "Come now child." She leaned over to Rapunzel. "Sing for me."

123

Jack had no idea where he was headed but he figured that the faster he flew, the more space he eliminated meant the closer he could get to Rapunzel. When suddenly, something began to glow within his chest and he pulled out his necklace that Rapunzel had given to him the first day they had met. Her bottled up tears were now glowing and oddly, when he stopped, the glow remained consistent. As he kept an eye on it, he began to fly back and noticed that the glow dimmed but as he continued on forward, the glow got brighter and brighter. "Ah ha!" He exclaimed with his excitement. "Rapunzel, I'm coming!" He gripped the bottle and began to dash for the source. He was going through such extreme speeds that he didn't realize that he had passed Pitch until he had passed the man.

Jack stopped in his steps, clung to his staff tightly and jumped in the air, dodging a pillar of dark clusters towards his way. The young boy spun around and pointed his staff towards Pitch, causing a beam of frost to rip from his staff and aim towards the dark form of the man. It clearly hit him and Pitch turned into a cloud of dust but Jack knew it wasn't over and began to shoot a column of frost, hoping to freeze the dust particles that were starting to reform. And just when Jack thought he had finished, a large collection of dust from the ground formed a drill and managed to crack the ice wall that he had placed. "That's more dust than you should have!" Jack shouted in frustration, beaming more frost at the dust that was trying to destroy his wall. But his frost did little damage to the new collection of black dust.

"You can thank your girlfriend for that!" Pitch grinned and let out a disturbing laugh. Immediately, Jack began to spit curses at him and dug his feet to the ground as he rapidly fired powerful bolts of frost at the enemy but Pitch was able to dodge the inaccurate shots formed by reckless emotion. As each shot failed to hit Pitch, there would be against explosion of shattered ice that pulled the air in and around it. "You can also blame yourself for that Jack. If you hadn't meddled in her life, I would have never discovered what capacity she had."

"Screw you, you sick bastard." Jack stopped, needing to take a break from his constant sparing. "She would have found new friends either way, with or without me." Jack told him, keeping Meredith in mind. "So we might as well finish this damn business." He pushed himself off the floor and made a straight dash towards Pitch and wielded his staff as if it were a sword and swung at the man. The two soon engaged in a battle of fists and kicks but it was long interrupted from sounds that drove them out of the battle. For Jack, the scream of Rapunzel threw him off and for Pitch, the sound of his army's lose was taking a toil in his plan. Despite Pitch receiving new power, he was smart enough to know that if he didn't act now while his necromancy army was with him, he'd easily be overcome if he were to be engaged in war against the guardians and the dragon riders alone.

"Damn, I'll fight you later boy." Pitch tells Jack and turns back to stare at the boy but he was already in sight. Pitch clicked his tongue, gathered his dust and continued on towards his army.

123

Mother Gothel let out a shriek of laughter as she witnessed her wrinkly skin tighten, her body grow height and an overwhelming amount of energy filling her from the youth she had received. "It's in your blood." Gothel glistened as she examined Rapunzel's blood on her fingernails. Somehow, Pitch was right. She figured out a way to manipulate Rapunzel's dream so that it brought her to the moment when she'd sing over Eugene as he was dying thus allowing her physical body to sleep talk. It was enough to activate the powers of her blood and restore Gothel to her original youthfulness. "I always knew you were special to me." She grinned. "I'm sorry dear but I must help Pitch so he'll become powerful win whatever it is he's trying to win. Then we can all be a happy family like we were meant to be without anyone chasing us." She patted Rapunzel's head and cooed her with soft clicking sounds. "Let's see… how can I enter your dreams?" She asked herself and raised both of her hands over Rapunzel.

And as perfectly as that went, black dust began to leave Rapunzel and entangle itself around Gothel's hand. The string of powder was constantly in rotation between Gothel and Rapunzel. Once Gothel felt like power had successfully surged through her, she closed her eyes and with her mind's eye, she was able to see Rapunzel's nightmares. The old lady smirked and began to toy with Rapunzel, allowing her to go into more creative forms of torment. So much so that she was jolted from the nightmare out of shock due to Rapunzel's loud screams. Gothel pulled her hands away and recoiled at what just happened but looked down as the grain of dust was now rushing out of her that it was at least up to Gothel's hips.

When out of no where, the doors slammed open and Gothel didn't even have time to look to see who had attacked her as a beam of ice hit her back and she knocked out over Rapunzel. Jack flew quickly towards Rapunzel's attacker and threw her off Rapunzel's body before clinging onto the blonde. He tried shaking her awake but when he failed, he desperately looked around to find anything that could help him rescue her. "Damn it." He murmured under his breath as he saw the black grain spilling out of her. "Pitch, you're a monster." But he didn't have time to grieve over the scene that lay before him, he had to find something to wake her up and in the corner of the room, which was when he saw Wilfred unconscious.

He flew up to his friend and managed to slap him awake. Clearly Pitch wasn't all too concerned with the yeti and only wanted him to fall asleep. Jack's eyes lit up as he noticed the yeti's eyes open but immediately, Jack was tossed aside and hit the wall. "Wilfred?!" Jack exclaimed in anger after he stood up but he then noticed that Wilfred and Gothel were in quick battle. Gothel was madly swinging a piece of heavy rock at Wilfred but the yeti was much stronger and managed to pry the rock from her hand and toss it aside.

Quickly, the yeti countered and held her as he let out a mumble of quick words to Jack. "You're right!" Jack responded to Wilfred. "I'll be back. Take care of Rapunzel for me and make sure she doesn't escape." Jack commands before flying out of the room.

123

The good guys were all cluttered together, some breathing more heavily than other. There were only now a few hundred left to fight as the other thousand was too damaged beyond repair. Just as they felt their moral going up, a tornado of black dust caught their attention and Pitch was now on top of that moving tornado. "At least they were able to keep you busy but now that I'm here, I hope you don't mind if I bring a few of them to life." He laughed, raising his hands and ready to start his enchantments but before he could start, Astrid jumped on Stormfly and flew right towards Pitch.

"Astrid!" Hiccup cried out, quickly following behind as he jumped on Toothless. Thankfully Astrid and Hiccup were now distracting Pitch in their own battle so that the army would not rise. That way, Nicholas, Aster, Toothania and Meredith could focus on eliminating the rest so they could eventually reunite to focus on Pitch. Sandman was already at the bottom of Pitch's tornado column and began to run his hand through the dust, thus transforming it into golden sand.

Noticing this, Pitch transformed his tornado to be more monstrous yet fear began to build up on him as his plans began to fail right before his eyes. Until black dust seemed to spring up a well and in the distance, there was an echo of Rapunzel's scream. He grinned and knew Gothel was making things well. With the new added power, he managed to sweep Sandy off his feet and push Astrid aside with a powerful blow. Both Stormfly and Astrid were now plummeting as they were caught in a deep coma of nightmares. "Damn it, Astrid!" Hiccup shouted, pushing Toothless to dive for Astrid. Stormfly's landing was smoothened by Sandy who sent a patch of golden sand to soften the blow. Through that contact, Stormfly's nightmares turned into wonderful dreams and eventually she woke up.

Sandy also made his way towards Hiccup and grabbed Astrid's black dust and turned that also into golden dust. Hiccup immediately relaxed once Astrid's face lightened up and he handed her to Sandy. "Get her down there, I'll go back to distracting him." Thanks to Meredith who was shooting arrows at Pitch while Astrid and Hicucp was down, Pitch was unsuccessful to bring back some of his troops.

Sandy flew down with Astrid on his dream cloud and lay her with Stormfly before he awakened her. The dragon warrior gasped for air and clung onto her head. "Those were the most horrible nightmares ever." She exclaimed, looking up at Sandy who gave her a comforting smile. She hadn't even realized that she was crying until Sandy wiped a tear from her eye and she pulled back from embarressment. This was completely abnormal for her; crying, that is and continued to wipe her tears. Sandy began to talk to her in a pattern of bells and luckily, Toothania was there to translate.

"He says be careful next time because he senses that Pitch's nightmares has gotten far worst since last time and can lead to physical damages aside from phonological ones." Astrid frowns at the unfortunate news but accepts it with a nod. Despite her damaged state, her dragon warrior blood shouted out for justice and she tried to stand but her knees quickly wobbled and she falls down.

"Be careful!" Toothania scolds, flying over to Astrid. "Sandy says that the nightmares have left an impression on your mind and it'll take some time for your body to recognize that you're not in danger. Other than that, your mind needs time to heal." Sandy nodded at Toothania's translation and he was ready to get back to fighting until he was interrupted by a shout.

"Sandy!" There was Jack's recognizable voice that caught their attention. "I need your help!" The snow maker was up in the higher levels of the catacombs. Sandy had to look at his teammates for confirmation.

"Go to him!" Nicholas commanded Sandy. "We're doing well over here." At this, Sandy nodded and flew towards Jack. Together the boys left the fight and dashed for Rapunzel.

Once they arrived, the scene was far worst than before now that Rapunzel's body was covered in dust except her face. They quickened their speed towards the girl and Sandman tried his best to convert every dust into gold but he also found it quite difficult at such high acceleration of nightmare dust pouring out. Soon it had pushed both boys back as it was now flooding out of Rapunzel. "Damn." Jack shouted, swinging his staff to freeze and contain the dust to one side. He could feel the weight of the rushing force and the spell was starting to drown him into sleep as well. Wilfred watched in the corner in great concern as the two were swept into the waves of dust and could not be seen. Inside the wave, the two boys continued pushing against complete darkness and after much pushing, Sandman was able to grab onto Rapunzel's arm and enter into her dreams – something he rarely did unless it was an extreme case.

From the outside, her body soon stopped pouring dust. Both Jack and Sandman finally could poke their head out and take a breather. Whatever remaining dust was now trying to find Pitch but on their travel, Jack shot at it and froze them in place. He moved his attention back to Rapunzel who was now still and unmoving. "Why won't she wake up?" Jack asked quietly, trying to gain his energy back. Sandman shook his head with a disheartened heart.

'We must give her time to heal. I'm sure the flower inside her is doing that as we speak.' Jack could hear through Sandy's jingling voice. 'I'm afraid the nightmares has taken a physical manifestations and her body was slowly starting to shut down in order to protect itself which was quite contrary to the flower. Now it's just a battle of will. In this moment, Rapunzel will have to be the one to choose whether she wants to live or die.' Sandy tells him and places a hand on Jack's shoulder. Shocked at the news, Jack crumbled to his knees as his emotions battled against his selfish desires of wanting to keep her and the other side knowing she'd find so much peace in death. All he could do was sob and seeing this rare moment; Sandy gave him some space to grieve.

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Pitch was reaching levels of desperation as he felt his power was no longer being supplied. Something obviously happened with Rapunzel and now he was desperate for another source. Down below, he saw Astrid shielded with her dragon as the two were clearly affected by his dust. Without Sandman there to help, Pitch thought it would be smart to start a new nightmare – one of reality. He blinded Hiccup with a cloud of dust and the boy relented his attacks in order to not get hit – the team was much more cautious now that Sandy was not there to act as the first aid.

Once Hiccup was out of sight, Pitch managed to command his remaining army to put their force into distracting the team below so he could grab Astrid. As if time had been slow, Pitch threw another coma enticing nightmare at Stormfly and managed to carry Astrid into the air. "I'm tired to games." Pitch shouted, holding Astrid by her hair and displaying her out to her friends. "Look here!" He called out to Astrid's husband who let out a war cry as both he and Toothless raced for Pitch.

"Don't you dare, you bastard!" Hiccup shouted, raising his sword but before he could reach his wife, Pitch drilled a column of dust into her stomach. The last thing Astrid did was wake from her nightmares as her eyes widened and her mouth expelled blood.

"You want her? Go get her." Pitch coaxed as he threw Astrid's body aside. Hiccup was in complete shock and despite Toothless's heart breaking; the black dragon took action and dove in order to grab Astrid. Out of shock, Meredith ignored the sword flying her way to point her arrows and madly shoot Pitch, but he knew he had to leave now. So while the remainder of his army distracted the guardians, he quickly swept by Hiccup and whispered in his ear. "Grow in your hate and fear and become my new sustaining power." Hiccup clung onto Astrid tightly as Toothless landed on the ground slowly. Although Meredith needed to be by Astrid, she had to stay and do the best thing which was ward the dead from reaching Hiccup. On the other hand, Aster and Toothania signalled Nicholas that they were off to chase Pitch.

Hiccup lifted his wife and got off of Toothless and lay her against his chest. His eyes were dry of tears and it was when Meredith called out to him did they flood like over run faucets. His sobs echoed in the chamber and shortly after, Meredith also joined in tears until Nicholas gasped. "Can't Rapunzel heal anything? "This caught the two's attention and immediately Meredith knew what to do. She abandoned the fight and trusted Nicholas to deal with the last few soldiers before she jumped onto Toothless.

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"Jack!" There was a shout for his name but he didn't bother staring at Meredith. He did feel her getting closer but still, he chose not to respond. "Pitch escaped and we need Rapunzel. She needs to heal Astrid. She'd dying." Jack looked up with dull eyes as he had a hard time displaying any more emotion.

"Rapunzel also." He whispered.

"Wait what?!" Meredith exclaimed, grabbing Jack by the collar of his sweater. She tossed him aside and clung onto Rapunzel. "Rapunzel!" She shouted as she shook the girl. "You can't leave! We came here to rescue you! Please, our friend is dying! You need to wake up!" In the fit of her pleas, Meredith's tears welled up again and began to flow. "Don't make this whole endeavour vain…please… Wisps! Do something! Talk to her soul." She cried out and got on her knees as well. Sandman who had heard the whole thing, decided to reunite with his other teammates to see if he could be of use there. He wished he could do more but as of now, he knew the only thing he could do was search for Pitch… after all, dust vs dust, Sandy knew how to use it the best… and could use it to track the him.

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Rapunzel was at a complete standstill as her mind proved to be empty. She wasn't sure where she was but all she knew was that the extreme pain she had felt was now finished. All that was left was her sore and aching body. She looked around the whiteness and brightness of the empty space. Was she dead? She wondered, wishing it was true but she knew otherwise that the flower would do everything it could to keep it's conduit alive. She began to walk aimlessly, looking for something, anything.

"Hey blonde." She turned around and saw Eugene's smiling face, young as they first met. Her bottled tears sprung a leak and she ran towards her husband who stretched out his arms.

"If this is a dream, I want to stay here forever." She tells him, smiling as she feels the warmth of his arms cradling her and his chest beating alongside hers.

"Actually, I'm not a dream. Some girl named Meredith asked her wisps to mess around with the not so living world. So here I am." He pulls her back to reveal his very enchanting smirk that always managed to make her heart melt and he wipes her tears. He wanted to speak more but rather, he steals himself a few kisses. "My only love." He whispers, tucking her hair behind her ear. "The flower will always prevent you from dying but your body right now is under a lot stress and the flower is going crazy trying to heal you up." Her eyes widened immediately. "So as of now, you have the ability to chose whether you want to remain in this coma or live."

"If it means I get to stay with you, I want to be here!" Eugene only smiles softly at her sentence.

"This isn't the afterlife." He informs her. "I'm more than willing to stay here with you for eternity… but you'd be missing out on so much… on seeing our children, your parents…your new friends need you." He tries to encourage her. "I've never left your side Punzie." Rapunzel's eyes widen at that nickname – only Meredith had called her that.

"You never have…" She whispers as the tears resurface.

"And I gotta say, that Jack guy isn't as bad as I first thought he was. Although I was jealous at first." He laughed causing Rapunzel to as well. "But, I'm so glad that we had our firsts together… and our chapter is done. We'll always love each other but I have a feeling you're not going to want to miss the adventure that's awaiting you." She's silent as she takes her husband's words into consideration. "Don't be afraid to fall in love again." He tells her.

"But it's scary." She confesses with a whisper.

"I'm sure it is… the first time I started to fall in love with you. I was scared because it was in complete opposite of my first dream." He chuckles. "Go get scared again… live out the butterflies. I won't get mad… I promise." He laughs, giving his wife comfort. She sighs and leans into him again, for a long time they hold onto each other before they're quickly interrupted by a voice.

"Rapunzel?" It was Astrid. Rapunzel turns around and sees the familiar girl.

"What are you doing here?" Rapunzel asks.

"Oh. I must have died… Oh yah, I did." Astrid informs her nonchalantly causing Rapunzel to gasp.

"I can heal you! If I head back to the world."

"Actually my dear." Eugene says. "I'm afraid you can't."

"What?!" Rapunzel spins to stare at her husband.

"In order to bring someone from life, you have to be there at that exact moment, otherwise, with just a few minutes, they can pass by." Eugene begins to rub his wife's back for comfort.

"I'm so sorry Astrid…" Rapunzel whispered. "I don't even know why you're here but I wish you had the opportunity to grow old with Hiccup." At that, Astrid spit out a laugh.

"Oh Rapunzel. You missed out on a lot but I already had my 'growing old' with Hiccup." She explains. "Hiccup, Meredith and I are also immortal. After this movie that was based off of you was released, we decided to do some research and find you. We wanted you to be part of our family and I'm sure you still can… just now with me." She grins. "And at least Hiccup and I have finally faced our greatest fear." Astrid goes on to tell her. "Hiccup and I always had this exact fear: one dying before the other resulting in loneliness but tell him to live on. Tell him that he has to conquer this one… for me." She smiles softly at Rapunzel. "I didn't meet you for long, but it would have been nice to." Astrid waves a goodbye as a beam of light lift her up. "Tell this to Hiccup…" And after her words were caught, she vanished, leaving the two lovers alone once again.

"Eugene?" Rapunzel turns around to face him. "I think I know what to do now." At this, her husband smirks.

"One last kiss before you go?" He asks causing her to laugh.

"Yes, one last kiss." She leans in to him as her breath disappears under his.

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There was a grunt coming from Rapunzel that awakened Jack and Meredith from their numbness. They both rose and looked at the girl who began to stir into life and she sat up slowly. Immediately, Jack was by her side and helped her up. "Rapunzel!" His voice was shaking and uncertain but was more than glad to see she chose life. She coughed, having to spit out some dust from her lungs.

"Astrid…" She whispered softly causing Meredith to hold a pained look.

"We need you to heal her." Rapunzel looked up at Meredith and she shook her head slowly.

"I can only heal immediately after they've died… but I have a message for Hiccup from Astrid." She smiles softly. "Thank your wisps for me Meredith, they managed to get my husband to knock some sense into me." At the word of husband, Jack tightened and froze but relaxed when Rapunzel laid a hand on his cheek. "and he approves of you." Her laugh causes Jack's face to turn shades of red he never knew could get that red. Rapunzel tries to stand but Jack decides to carry her instead.

"Wait, Rapunzel!" They all turn to face Gothel who nothing but a pathetic crumbled figure of paper skin and bones. "Sing to me! You must sing to me!" She begged and waited anxiously at Rapunzel's silence and thoughtful gaze. When eventually Gothel's eyes lit up as she looked forward to hearing Rapunzel when the girl opened her mouth.

"No." Rapunzel tells her plainly. "I chose not to." And all throughout, Rapunzel does not stare at Gothel. She instead continues to keep her gaze towards the exit of the room. "She's nothing without me, you might as well leave her here." She whispers softly before signalling Jack to go on.

"Wilfred." Jack says and the yeti releases Gothel who falls to the ground. Everyone except Rapunzel stared at the fallen figure who looks as if she could be snapped into two just by picking her up before traveling to reunite with the rest of the team.

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The winds were gentle considering that it was winter season and everyone was in the forests of Sweden by a running river that soon faded down into a waterfall. The snow was thick as always yet there was a peace within the air. There by the river were the guardians and Hiccup, Meredith, Rapunzel and Toothless. Astrid was safely tucked and laid on a wooden boat and Stormflys bones had marked the spot they stood on. Despite the dragon and it's rider just dying a few hours ago, the bones looked as if it had been there for a long time. To think that the battle was just a while ago and they were celebrating the 27th morning of December with a funeral.

Though the funeral was bitter, there was some light to it as Pitch was caught and Sandman offered to keep him a prison for as long as he could. Through the observation of Pitch's chains against Rapunzel, Sandman was inspired to create and design a cage for Pitch that would further weaken the man. Though fear and hatred would always linger, Sandy swore his best to keep Pitch from medaling the way he had and in a surprising way, Hiccup made peace with the man. "I'm not going to feed you." Hiccup had said to Pitch when Aster, Toothania and Sandy brought him back. "I will grieve but I will conquer my fear." And this left Pitch in an even more devastating state. Not only was Pitch alone in his capture but also Toothania had offered to take watch of Gothel and was certain that the old lady would not be harmful to anyone.

The deaths were so unexpected that no one had the time to wear black and the speeches they gave were so raw and unrefined that it made things more sincere. Hiccup chose to keep his speech short in order to save his bubbled up tears for when he was alone. Eventually he pushed the boat that carried his wife's carcass and accepted the bow and arrow from Meredith. With Toothless's fire, he was able to light the arrow and aim it at the boat that eventually caught fire. Slowly, Meredith began to sing a Nordic lullaby as one by one, each guardian left except for Jack. Now it was the four immortal humans plus a lonely dragon. "Thanks for that song." Hiccup whispered, his gaze still on the ground.

"Sorry about-"

"Don't be." Hiccup interrupted Rapunzel with a smile. "Out of everyone here, Astrid and I were the most luckiest pair. I was never alone as you two were." He motioned Jack and Rapunzel. "and Mer," he turned to the redhead. "if you survived the death of your husband, I'm sure I can." He pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping to stop the tears that slowly left him but despite him fighting, they kept coming. Toothless let out a low purr and tucked his head under his master's arm. "I'm glad I have you buddy…"

"What will you do now?" Jack asks.

"I think I'm going to want to be alone for a long time, whether a year or more to think and meditate on things. It'll also give me a great opportunity to manage and check on the Dragon Cave here." Hiccup responds.

"I think I'm going to go back and visit Scotland. I also want to reconnect with my roots." Mer adds in. She then looks and moves her hand towards Jack and Rapunzel. "What about you two?"

"I have to settle things back home with Ged and Avner." Rapunzel tells them.

"And I think I'm gonna stay around Rapunzel a bit." Jack says. Soon the four were left with silence, emphasized by the gust of wind that flew by.

"I hope this isn't the end of us." Meredith whispers, looking down at the gray rocks mixed with snow.

"Oh it won't." Hiccup smiles, sniffling loudly while wiping his tears with the back of his palm. "I'm sure we'll meet again and until that day." He says. "Evil will cower at the sight of the Big Four." He places a hand in the center of their circle causing Meredith to light up.

"The Big Four!" She cheered, placing her hand on his.

"The Big Four." Rapunzel grinned; adding her hand to the pile and all was left was Jack. Everyone stared at him. "Come on Jack."

"I don't know…" He prolonged in a joking way. "I'd be betraying the Guardians."

"Jack…" Meredith scolded.

"I'm just kidding, I can be an agent to both." He winked at them. "Here's to the Big Four." He laughs, toping the pile with his hand. Lastly, Toothless snuck in and pushed all their hands up with his head. The dragon let out a gurgle of sounds and danced around, leaving all them laughing.

"New Years." Jack says. "There will be a party at Sandy's. You must be there." He tells them all, especially Hiccup.

"I'll stop by." The last dragon rider shrugged as he jumped on Toothless's back.

"That better have been a yes!" Jack says but Hiccup responds with a shrug.

"I'll be there." Meredith laughed, folding her hands over her waist.

"I'll see you guys soon then." Hiccup shouts, now that he was hovering above them with Toothless. The three waved goodbye and soon they were left alone.

"Well. You headed to Scotland right away?" Jack asks and Meredith shakes her head. "I'll hafta quit my job, deal with property management and I'll need to find a door before I get back to Scotty."

"Alright then." Jack says, throwing a snow globe at the ground while his other arm comfortably snuck it's way around Rapunzel's waist. Like always, the snow glove burst into colour and led them back to New York…back to the place where their chapters crossed paths.

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I'm done. lol. Hope you all enjoyed :) I'll leave it up to you all how you'd interoperate the New Years Party. This was pretty fun to write – a nice break and stuff. God Bless :)

BTW, explaination of Stormfly's death: there was an immortal pact that was created between Rider and Dragon. If one were to die, the other would also.

Meredith get's around with doors. She can manipulate it and open it to another dimension/location.

If there are mistakes in editing, ignore it but if it's major – like multiple. Tell meh and I'll get to fixing it!


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